Cassandra Sturm – Finding Pope’s Hill

CASSANDRA STURM

Finding Pope’s Hill

Acrylic and Charcoal on Canvas

61 x 67cm

My partner and I visited Gallipoli for the 2015 anniversary and hiked a ridgeline from between Monash Valley and Shrapnel Gully down towards Anzac Cove.  I was struck by the beauty and similarity between the coastal vegetation of the peninsula and that of my home in Western Australia, but also the unfamiliarity of the steep, claustrophobic valleys. As my partner took a resection to locate Pope’s Hill for a research project on the 16^th Battalion, I stood alone on a nearby ridge and photographed his likely target. This work revisits that photograph and the feeling I had on that day that this land will always be an uneasy amalgamation for Australians – both foreign soil and a sense of belonging to place.