This is how the light gets in

“Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.”
“Anthem,” by Leonard Cohen from his 1992 album The Future.

Starting a small square canvas 46 x 46cm

of two windows and a door in the

Large Erecting Shop, Eveleigh Railway Workshops

Enquiries

These are healing words to someone who often struggles under the unbearable weight of perfectionism. It is more than a confrontation with the strange beauty of broken things.

It is a powerful message of hope in dark times.There is a crack in everything whether a physical object such as a piece of machinery, or even a state of mind.

But that’s where the light gets in, and that’s where we can find the transcendence we need to interpret painful events in a wider context.

Literally, nothing, and nobody is perfect.That should not be a source of despair or frustration.

Imperfection is a sign of life.

Starting a small square canvas 46 x 46cm

of two windows and a door in the

Large Erecting Shop, Eveleigh Railway Workshops

Enquiries
If the purpose of a window is to be able to let an observer see outside, or to illuminate the interior, the windows of the Large Erecting Shop of the Eveleigh Railway Workshops fail spectacularly.

'2 windows and a door in the Large Erecting Shop,

Eveleigh Railway Workshops'

2017 oil on canvas 46 x 46cm

Enquiries
However, the evocative effects created by sunlight filtering through the grid of rusty bars rival the stained glass of Chartres Cathedral.

'2 windows and a door in the Large Erecting Shop,

Eveleigh Railway Workshops'

2017 oil on canvas 46 x 46cm

Enquiries
Every pane is a unique mix of translucency and texture.

Starting a 91 x 61cm canvas

of the strange green window.

" 2 windows and a door, Large Erecting Shop,

Eveleigh Railway Workshops' 2017

oil on canvas 46 x 46cm 

Enquiries
Their ethereal opalescent quality is not caused by expensive designer frosting, but by more than a century's buildup of deposits of dirt, pigeon droppings, steam and diesel fumes.

Starting a 91 x 61cm canvas

of the strange green window.

Enquiries
And there are cracks galore.

Starting a 91 x 61cm canvas

of the strange green window.

Enquiries
Other imperfections abound.

Half finished 91 x 61cm canvas

of the strange green window.

'2 windows and a door in the

Large Erecting Shop,

Eveleigh Railway Workshops'

2017 oil on canvas 46 x 46cm"

Enquiries
Ghost signs warning of the dangers of long lost machinery alternate with boarded over panes in abstract patterns that would make Mondriaan's head spin.

Half finished 91 x 61cm canvas of the strange green window.
Enquiries
Doors are abruptly cut into them, apparently at random.

Half finished 91 x 61cm canvas of the strange green window.
Enquiries : janecooperbennett@gmail.com
An inexplicably green pane of glass casts an eerie phosphorescent glow.

"Window with pane of green glass"

2017 oil on canvas 91 x 61cm

Enquiries
When the Large Erecting Shop is redeveloped, the windows will be replaced with uncracked clear panes to match the rest of the gentrified ATP.
No rogue panes of eldritch green glass will startle the viewer with their otherworldly light. They will be made safe, watertight, functional, identical and boring.
The chaotic jumble of heritage machinery in the Large Erecting Shop will be culled and tamed. There will be nothing accidental, mysterious or inexplicable.
There will soon be no cracks left to let the light in.
More paintings of the Eveleigh Railway Workshops

Related Posts

Ghost Train

Ghost in the machine

Scar Tissue

Painting in the paint shop - The Green Room

The slow return from the fire

The fire within

Eaten by robots

My old studio, the Harbour Control Tower

MP55 Harbour Control Tower from Observatory Hill

2016 oil on paper 9.5 x 9.5cm

Available

 
Another one of my old studios has bitten the dust.

I feel like I can jinx a place just by painting it.

I have been observing the start of the demolition of the Port Operations Harbour Tower in Millers Point.

Love it or loathe it, the Tower was one of the last vestiges of Barangaroo's former life as a working port.
The heart and soul of the former 'Hungry Mile' has been ripped out and replaced with machines.
Literally.

MP56 Harbour Control Tower from Argyle st

2016 oil on paper 9.5 x 9.5cm

Available 

Once the 'mushroom cap' at the top of the Tower was fully removed, the concrete stem below it was eaten away by robotic excavators from the top down.

Just another portent of the world envisioned by Isaac Asimov in his book “I, Robot. Technology asserts its robotic grip whether you like it or not.

Progress is so impersonal.

Eaten by robots- what a way to go!
So very Dr Who. "Exterminate, exterminate!"

MP54 Harbour Control Tower

from the Hotel Palisade 2016-7

oil on canvas 122 x 153cm
Available

Meanwhile paint peels off surrounding terraces awaiting their inevitable gentrification. The Hotel Palisade opposite has completed its journey from seedy early opening waterfront dive to expensive hipster hub, while retaining some of the trappings of its colourful past.

Related Posts

Barangaroo - Red Square, the Drill Rig and a little Archaeology

Barangaroo - Tabula Rasa

Tie a yellow ribbon

The Last of the Hungry Mile

My exhibition at the Sydney Open

Ghost train

Work in progress - 'Engine shop,

Large Erecting Shop, Eveleigh Railway Workshops'

2017 oil on canvas 46 x 46cm

Enquiries

There has been a lot of uncertainty about the future of the 3801 Ltd, and even of the Large Erecting Shop itself. Many of the relics will probably be lost or put into storage if the site is to become a running shed. This would mean that trains would still run from the shed, but no repair or maintenance work could be carried out. Anything not required merely to run the trains would then be removed from the interior and either sent to Thirlmere, put in storage or even put in a skip bin.

Already a lot of items have been put in the skip or just disappeared.

Work in progress - 'Engine shop,

Large Erecting Shop, Eveleigh Railway Workshops'

2017 oil on canvas 46 x 46cm

Enquiries

This old office in the Large Erecting shop of Eveleigh Railway Workshops, had been used to store stacks of windows and doors waiting to be repaired to refurbish a carriage.

In front of it are lathes, drills and boxes of rusting tools that obviously are many decades old.

Work in progress - 'Engine shop,

Large Erecting Shop, Eveleigh Railway Workshops'

2017 oil on canvas 46 x 46cm

Enquiries

This old office is an example of the sort of item that may not be kept, despite its historical interest.

Before it was used to store windows, it had been the headquarters of the 51⁄2 year restoration of 3830, which was carried out by a team of about 12 volunteers from the Powerhouse Museum and 3801 Limited.
There are still ghost signs that haven't been erased from when the restoration of 3830 started in 1992.

Work in progress - 'Engine shop,

Large Erecting Shop, Eveleigh Railway Workshops'

2017 oil on canvas 46 x 46cm

Enquiries
On the weathered sky blue boards are inscriptions in white chalk about its time of service.
"3830 18 years 11 months 4 days
Into service 27/9/49
Withdrawn 31/10/67 (Illegible) birthday 23 years
Cost £53,145/2/0 Basic Wage 4/8 11/20d/hour
Builders' No 170 40 hours £8/12/0 approx"

Work in progress - 'Engine shop,

Large Erecting Shop,

Eveleigh Railway Workshops'

2017 oil on canvas 46 x 46cm

Enquiries

The blackboard on the left hand side of the window of the old office has a mysterious list of the 38 class locos, split into 2 sections.

The left hand side of the blackboard starts with 3826, 3830, 3802, 3801, 3810, 3812, 3825, 3804, 3813, 3826, 3823, 3818, 3808, 3807, then there is a vertical line.
On the other side 3806 has been almost erased, then 3814, 3811, 3819, 3828, 3806, 3809, 3811, then a few illegible words with "38's are great mate" written over them.

'Engine shop, Large Erecting Shop,

Eveleigh Railway Workshops'

2017 oil on canvas 46 x 46cm

Enquiries

I had wondered why the numbers had been written in such a haphazard order, and why some were missing and others repeated.

It was obviously not chronological, but there was obviously a reason behind it.
The secret was finally revealed by a veteran of the restoration.
The 3830 was a sort of 'Frankenstein's monster', composed of parts cannibalized from other 38 class locos.
The list of 38 class locos refers to the original source of particular items that finally ended up as part of 3830.

Ironically, the current (although now non-functioning) boiler of the 3830, was the original boiler of the 3801! The saga of the many attempts to fix /replace the current boiler of 3801 has been dragging on since 2007.

Now in 2020, ironically the boiler has been fixed and the loco is operational, but due to the Covid restrictions, the planned grand opening has had to be postponed.

'Engine shop, Large Erecting Shop,

Eveleigh Railway Workshops'

2017 oil on canvas 46 x 46cm

Enquiries

Unfortunately restoration and maintenance may not be regarded as priorities in the proposed future of this building.

I think that this is a short sighted policy that shows an appalling lack of respect to all the hard work carried out over so many decades by so many volunteers. This attitude will lead to the loss of irreplaceable heritage items and skills.

Related Posts

This is how the light gets in

Ghost in the machine

Scar Tissue

Painting in the paint shop - The Green Room

The slow return from the fire

The fire within