‘Off the Well-Worn Path’ by Ryley Clarke

Abstract photo of window shutters

Not long ago, my mother sold her childhood home. It’s been an overwhelming and exhausting journey to restore the place. Originally built by my Great-Grandfather and Great-Grandmother, over time it has quietly decayed away. Once loved, the dust took over. Books, unopened boxes, and hoarded objects filled the rooms and hallways. Paint began to peel off the walls. Forgotten inherited possessions, hidden beneath it all. Throughout the years we spent working on clearing the rooms of my mother’s childhood home bit by bit, I occasionally pulled out my camera to take photographs of the ever-precarious moments that symbolised the end of its journey for my mother and our family.

Off the Well-Worn Path is a photo documentary narrative exploring the physical and emotional connection to my mother’s childhood home. The project explores the journey of clearing and restoring the home to create room for new inhabitants and memories. Observing the relationship between the human condition, time, family and place, Off the Well-Worn Path seeks to entwine the past and present history embedded within this dwelling through inheritance, regeneration and change.

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Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Luwaytini' by Mark Cleaver, Palawa.

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aboriginal flag
torres strait flag

Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business.

More information