Sporting country

In Sporting country (2016) Jane Brown explores the importance of sport as a unifying force in rural Australia. Her carefully composed black and white photographs document sporting fields, monuments, trophies and legends in small towns across the country. The series continues Brown's interest in regional Australia and what she affectionately refers to as 'the Aussie vernacular', most poignantly captured by the artist in images of monuments to local sporting heroes that are both humorous and strangely dignified, such as the giant bluestone gumboot displayed in Beech Forest, Victoria, in honour of marathon runner Cliff Young. Central to this series is the notion of 'faded glory', which resonates in a tension between nostalgia for a bygone era and the ongoing and passionate support of local sporting activities. Brown began work on the series after hearing about a 100-year old football team in Victoria's Mallee region that recruited players from interstate in an effort to survive. The meticulously tended bowling greens and football ovals pictured in these photographs testify to the determination of small town communities to maintain dated but much-loved sporting facilities in the face of a shift in support from local clubs to national and international teams.