Industrial Cathedral

Industrial Cathedral
"Industrial Cathedral" charcoal on paper 131 x 131 cm Jane Bennett. Finalist in 1998 Dobell Drawing Prize Art Gallery of NSW Finalist 1998 Blake Prize Winner 1998 Hunter's Hill Open Art Prize

About Me

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Sydney, NSW, Australia
I'm an Industrial Heritage Artist who paints "en plein air".If it's damaged, derelict, doomed and about to disappear, I'll be there to paint it.

Monday 27 March 2017

Eaten by robots

My old studio, the Harbour Control Tower
Plein air oil painting of the Harbour Control Tower before it was demolished and the Hotel Palisade near Barangaroo painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
MP55 Harbour Control Tower from Observatory Hill
2016 oil on paper 9.5 x 9.5cm
 
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.
Plein air oil painting of the Harbour Control Tower before it was demolished and the Hotel Palisade near Barangaroo painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
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!"
Plein air oil painting of the Harbour Control Tower being demolished from the Hotel Palisade near Barangaroo painted by industrial heritage artist Jane Bennett
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.

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