It’s time to share another of my fixations. Adelaide is still giving here and if you’ve been playing along for a while you can probably tell me what I love about this inner city, industrial scene… feel free to say so in the comments if you’re brave… if you’re new here click the #fixations tag above and you’ll get the idea!
fine art
Fixations 5
Fixations 5. Still in Adelaide (not now, at the time of taking). If you’ve been following this series of me obsessing over fairly ordinary things, you can probably tell me what I love about this little scene… but in case you haven’t, here it is… colour, obviously. Strong lines and shadows - also obvious. Perhaps less obvious is the contrasting texture of those bricks sitting alongside the smooth concrete and bitumen. And of course there’s that ever present sense of isolation. It was also the way it revealed itself to me as I made my way down the lane. Those colourful little buildings sitting amongst the surrounding concrete giants were like a little oasis in the hot Adelaide sun. That’s all.
Fixations 4
Did you know I have a carpark fetish? Maybe fascination is a better word. In any case, I do. I’ve been wandering in and out of carparks, old and new for many years but like so much of my personal work, it remains unseen. What is it about carparks? It’s all the themes that run throughout this series of fixations and more - strong lines, great colours, concrete, detritus a sense of the extraordinary in the ordinary and that feeling of isolation. The “more” in this instance, is the light - dark, moody, atmospheric and a touch cinematic.
This carpark, in Adelaide, has a very particular and strong memory and feeling attached to it. I was returning to my hotel late in the day when I came across it. It was unclear if it was public or private but unable to resist I went on in and started to shoot. So there I am, snapping away when I heard the roller door start to close! Of course I was too far in to make it back to the door and regardless, as a wise lecturer (2nd year for those in the know) once told me “photographers never run”. Instant panic set it at the thought of being stuck in that dark, moody and no longer atmospheric, just terrifying, carpark.
Fortunately, it turns out it was a pubic carpark and swipe access was not required to leave the exit door in the back, so once my heart rate had settled I continued to snap away! Here’s what I saw:
Fixations 3
So here we are again. Fixated. This time in Adelaide and quite some time ago. What is it I’m seeing?
Colour plays a part here. The palette of this little scene reminds me, somewhat cringingly and somewhat fondly of a check shirt I wore in the nineties - blue, beige and brown. And I can’t resist a bit of yellow, divisive as it is as a colour.
From colour to texture - organic and manmade - rocks and stone, contrasting with the industrial elements of iron, steel and aluminium.
What else? Lines. Always lines. Lines of different widths and heights and orientations - repeating, crossing, meeting. Curved lines to interrupt the straight. Order in the chaos.
There’s a hint of pareidolia (google it) - though I’m never seeking it or deliberately framing for it.
Finally it’s the little reminders of the natural environment to soften the industrial hardness - soft clouds, palm tree and even a little shadow.
There’s just something about industry that draws me in as it did one of my favourite Australian painters and significant influencer of my work, Geoffrey Smart.
Fixations 2
A long-time and very dear friend paid a visit to Melbourne in recent months. In one of our many, deep and artful conversations we came to the subject of my “Fixations” posts. She (who will know who she is when she reads this) suggested that you might like to hear about what it is exactly that I am fixating on in these images, what it is that caught my attention.
So. This next fixation, I happened upon when working in Hobart earlier this year. This little scene stopped me dead and only got better the more I moved in. It’s the strong lines and repetition in the facade of the building, it’s the patterns in the paving of the road and footpath, it’s the symmetry of the shiny silver bike thingys (what do you call those?), it’s the way nature gently but firmly disrupts the man made perfection with organic, uneven and unpredictable lines. It’s colour - green on stone, the hint of red in the speed sign, the coloured paint on the pavement, the bolt of yellow from the adjacent carpark and the pastel yellow of that strange little, sticker covered, industrial box, which doesn’t belong and fits in all the same. It’s the sense of isolation, the absence of people. I could go on… it’s all of that and more.
For those that are interested it’s the former Reserve Bank building which was designed by the Commonwealth Department of Works and constructed in 1977.
Omnia Art Prize
Exciting news last week with 1 Treasury Place - 8:50am being shortlisted for the Omnia Art Prize.
The exhibition opens on 19th May and runs to the 22nd May only. Be sure to go along and take in work from leading contemporary artists around Australia. All the details below.
1 Treasury Place
I spent a weekend in town last year, a belated celebration for my 40th birthday actually. Belated thanks to COVID, of course. It was the first weekend after the last big lockdown and the city was still beautifully sleepy and peaceful. I slipped out for a walk one morning and was drawn towards 1 Treasury Place, a favourite designed by Yuncken Freeman Architects in the 1960s.
Now as any photographer with a “serious” looking camera knows you can barely lift your camera around 1 Treasury Place without being asked to leave, but on this day they must have been feeling particularly generous. I think I was there for nearly 30 minutes before they told me to go away. I wasn’t finished but I was pretty pleased with the precious and rare time I had.
There’s an equally rare self portrait amongst these images to mark the occasion too!
Edge of Darkness
By the time coronavirus lockdowns first reached us in 2020 I had already be been consciously exploring the idea of isolation for several years. As you will see from previous posts (‘Isolation’ 2017’, ‘Ships in the Night, 2018’, ‘Metropolis, 2018, ‘False Warmth, 2019’) it is something I have considered through varied subject matter.
In 2020 when large sections of the population were isolating at home it provided a unique opportunity to view our urban environment in a near complete state of isolation. Coronavirus amplified the experience of isolation for a great number of people and for many left them in or on the edge of darkness.
