AustLit

'In the hours between two days you stumble through half-remembered lanes into the child that was you. What comes back to you in those moments; reliably? And who, among all the people you knew then, among the people that come to mind; who remembers you? And what else do they remember?' (Introduction)

'In Mirror Sydney, inspired by psychogeography, Vanessa Berry embarks on “drifts” through inauspicious Sydney – hollowed-out factory districts, heedless highways and all-but-forgotten suburban arcades. She anatomises the contents of a lost-property office, and visits sites associated with elephants. The dreamy, daggy landmarks are features of a more “introspective” city than you’d find in the travel guides – or even on the street, unless tipped off by Berry’s slightly cockeyed curiosity. She also creates hand-drawn mumblecore maps that she likens to star charts, 'revealing places as constellations rather than the linear pathways of the written word'.' (Introduction)