Barangaroo - Where Art, Architecture, History, Politics and Economics meet

The discussion "Why the hullaballoo about Barangaroo? Where Art, Architecture, History, Politics and Economics meet" was held on Sunday 10th March, in the courtyard of the Frances Keevil Gallery, where my solo exhibition "From the Hungry Mile to Barangaroo" continues until Sunday March 24th.

This was a brave experiment.

Neither Frances nor myself have ever put together anything like this before.

It was well worth it! The conversation between the panel members was informative, entertaining and at times passionate and stirring. The audience was enthralled - many of them stayed on afterwards to ask questions, take photos and even get autographs!

Meet the distinguished panel: 

From left to right : 

Philip Thalis, Dr Jack Mundey AO, Alex Greenwich MP, John McInerney, Dr Graham Jahn AM

And the facilitator for the event, the renowned investigative journalist, Quentin Dempster.

From left to right - 

 Dr Jack Mundey AO, Alex Greenwich MP, John McInerney, Dr Graham Jahn AM, Quentin Dempster, and Frances Keevil, Director of the Frances Keevil Gallery.

Dr Jack Mundey AO, is the legendary elder statesman of activism. He spoke movingly of the history of the famous Green Bans, in which as secretary of the New South Wales Builders' Labourers Federation (BLF), he led a successful campaign to protect the built and natural environment of Sydney from inappropriate development.
Apart from his unique credentials as a champion of heritage and sustainable urban planning, Jack had played an important part at the beginning of the story of the Barangaroo development.
 In 2006, Jack was a member of the jury to choose the design for Barangaroo. The jury had unanimously selected the design by the team headed by Philip Thalis - which bizarrely has now been completely discarded by LendLease, the developers of the site.
Incidentally, LendLease's design had come a distant second in the initial competition.

Philip Thalis, deep in thought.
Philip Thalis is the principal of Hill Thalis Architecture + Urban Projects. 
His design team won the competition to design Barangaroo - yet their design has not been adopted for the actual construction.

Philip Thalis gave a thought-provoking speech pointing out flaws in both the process and the design.The contrast between the potential of what Barangaroo, could and should have been, and the unfortunate reality was made completely clear to the audience.

John McInerney, previously for many years a Councillor of the City of Sydney, is now the "President of Australians for Sustainable Development". He has a wealth of experience in how councils and the State government interact throughout the stages of planning and development, and provided startling images of the impact of the Barangaroo buildings which are currently under construction.

John McInerney examined many of the peculiarities of the entire planning process of the controversial Barangaroo project, and exposed some very disturbing implications for the future of Sydney. Most people in the audience had not previously grasped the consequences of some of these decisions and were completely gobsmacked.

 

Alex Greenwich MP in action. 
His speech about the development of Barangaroo being used as a "Trojan Horse" to  force the displacement of the residents of Millers Point, was passionate and articulate.

Dr Graham Jahn AM, Director of Planning and Transport at the City of Sydney.

Dr Graham Jahn AM, added some background detail.

Quentin Dempster was a wonderful choice as facilitator for the discussion. His polite, yet probing questions brought out the best in the panel. The chaotic and complex narrative of the planning process behind Barangaroo was revealed to the eager audience.

Dr Jack Mundey AO, Alex Greenwich MP, John McInerney - 3 champions of social justice.

Jack and me 

 

 

I can't thank all the participants enough for their wonderful efforts to make this discussion a success!
And I am just as grateful to Lynn and Frances, Directors of the Frances Keevil Gallery for stepping well outside their comfort zone to host this event at the gallery and to organize it so well.

Related posts

From the Hungry Mile to Barangaroo 

Storm Warning, Goat Island 

Lashed to the Mast

An April update 

Why the Hullaballoo about Barangaroo

Why the hullaballoo about Barangaroo?

 Panel Discussion at the Frances Keevil Gallery
Why the hullaballoo about Barangaroo? 

Where Art, Architecture, History, Politics and Economics meet

2 – 4pm Sunday March 10

DH248 'The wharves and High St
from the Stamford on Kent'
2007 oil on canvas 75 x 100cm

Enquiries about this painting

Other Enquiries

It's that time of year again.

Galleries and collectors are slowly waking up after their annual summer hibernation. The Art market is as seasonal as fruit-picking. 

March is "Art Month".All of the galleries bring out the big guns to impress. 
My solo exhibition "From the Hungry Mile to Barangaroo" is the signature event of the Frances Keevil Gallery for Art Month.
Instead of doing the usual artist's talk to accompany the show I thought that I'd try something a bit different.
The trouble with artist's talks is that they probably only really interest other artists.
So what would interest the average Sydney-sider?
How about ludicrous amounts of money, murky politics, waterfront real estate to die for ..... and a little whiff of scandal? Sounds very Sydney to me.

After a great deal of thought, many emails and even more phone calls, I have put together  a carefully selected panel for a no holds barred discussion about Barangaroo.

I hope that it will be a balanced yet informative discussion. Some past history and controversy will be aired, but it's an opportunity to discuss some of the many complex issues raised by the Barangaroo development in front of the exhibition of paintings I actually created on the site.
The  participants are:

Graham Jahn AM Director City Planning Development and Transport, City of Sydney
Dr Jack Mundey AO legendary activist and 'Grandfather of the Green Bans', who was also a member of the jury that chose the original design for Barangaroo
Philip Thalis principal of Hill Thalis Architecture + Urban Projects, whose design team won the competition to design Barangaroo - yet whose design has not been adopted for the actual construction.
John McInerney

former Councillor of the City of Sydney and now President of "Australians for Sustainable Development". John also actually lives in Millers Point.

Related posts

'From the Hungry Mile to Barangaroo'
Storm warning, Goat Island
"See the sites"Elizabeth Fortescue The Daily Telegraph  March 02, 2013

Macdonaldtown - A Station without a suburb

I was asked by the National Trust After Hours Committee if I could help with a heritage walk "Macdonaldtown Meander" on Sunday 3rd March.

This was quite a challenge.

I have painted Macdonaldtown's majestic neighbour,the Eveleigh Railway Workshops many times,but Macdonaldtown itself had never appeared as an obvious source of inspiration.

But I was intrigued and decided to explore. I'm glad that I did. Often I can concentrate on more obviously spectacular vistas, and miss the subtle charms of smaller details, such as the exquisite series of classical heads as vignettes between each terrace in a row close to the start of Wilson Street.

Macdonaldtown's streets were full of delightful surprises.
This charming decorative corbel is carved into the classically inspired head of a lady.  It separates a row of five 3 storey terraces at the western end of Wilson street. Some of them have been tastefully gentrified in harmonious neutral shades, while their neighbours sport shabby yet garish liquorice all-sorts colours. 
The hot pink terrace on the right reminds me of the time in 1986 when  a couple of local lads decided to beautify Macdonaldtown Station by painting it pink. All of it. Tables, chairs walls and even a pot plant were glued down and painted pink in an "overall effort to enhance the station". No conviction was recorded and the State Rail Authority's claim for damages was rejected by the Magistrate. I had hoped that the hot pink terrace had been occupied by these 2 intrepid painters, but they actually lived in Enfield at the time.

 'The Lady of the house' 
Row of terraces in Wilson street
2012 oil on canvas 18 x 13cm
Available
Enquiries about these paintings :

janecooperbennett@gmail.com

Macdonaldtown, despite its freshly renovated railway station, is not actually a bona fide suburb.

It's a "locality". More of a state of mind, really. The slightly shabbier sister, always being dominated by her more prominent Newtown, St Peters, Enmore, Erskineville and Redfern.The hinterland ; with most of the local landmarks residing slightly outside her nebulous borders -the exciting King Street shopping strip; the funky CarriageWorks; the chimneys of the St Peters Brickworks; the Eveleigh Railway Workshops.

Macdonaldtown remains the almost invisible space in-between.

While painting in Macdonaldtown, I found most of her inhabitants actually denied living there. They lived in "Newtown", "South Newtown", "near Eveleigh", "west of CarriageWorks", "Hollis Park", "North Erskineville", even the marvellously convoluted "south of Wilson Street West". This could be influenced by the vagaries of  real estate prices rather than dislike of the name Macdonaldtown.

Macdonaldtown mostly consisted of terrace houses of the cheapest possible construction,generally 4 metres (13 ft) wide "two-up two-down" with a rear kitchen.They usually had adjoining walls only one brick thick and a continuous shared roofspace. Hundreds of these  formerly humble dwellings still remain and are rapidly being gentrified. 19th century property developers would build a row terminating in a house of 1 1/2 width at the corner of the street, to be used as a commercial premises, or "Corner Store".

'Someone to watch over me' 
2012 oil on canvas 20 x 25cm

Enquiries about these paintings :

janecooperbennett@gmail.com

So this lion watching over a shabby shop on Erskineville Road opposite the Erskineville Hotel came as quite a surprise. This is the sort of rooftop sculpture that I would expect on a castle or mansion, rather than in the middle of a tatty row of terraces. It hints at a sort of delusion of grandeur.

 Only 1 person in the pub opposite had ever noticed it peering down at them!

'Derelict 'Edward Brooks'
factory in Wilson street  2012
oil on board 22 x 28cm

Enquiries about these paintings :

janecooperbennett@gmail.com

Another architectural surprise.

The terraces at the northern and eastern end (closer to the University and the city) are as a rule far more prestigious than the workers cottages to the west and south, especially the row in Georgina Street and Warren Ball Avenue next to Hollis Park.

However, next to the very upmarket Hollis Park area, is the very large and very derelict 'Edward Brooks' factory, crumbling into Wilson Street. The winch above the window hints at its industrial past.

 'Edward Brooks building, Wilson Street'

2013 oil on canvas  46 x 92cm
Available
Enquiries about these paintings :

janecooperbennett@gmail.com

This larger painting shows the steps up to the lovely park next door, and how the old factory contrasts with the freshly renovated terrace next door.

 The former 'Edward Brooks building' was known locally, rightly or wrongly as the 'Hat Factory'. By the size of the winch hats (and presumably heads) were a lot bigger back in the good old days!

 None of the locals have so far been able to tell me very much about its history. One man from the Erskineville Hotel, whose dad used to live 3 doors down, said that it was a foundry, which seems possible, although records show the "IronWorks" as being a block further west down the road at no. 150 Wilson Street.

His dad, like so many of the former residents of Macdonaldtown's workers terraces, was an employee of the Eveleigh Railway Workshops.Built in 1878, the Eveleigh Railway yards housed the Government Railway Stores and Workshops, and the Locomotive Engineer’s Department from 1901. Production declined in the 1970s and ceased in 1988. The site lay mostly disused til 1996 when the northern (Darlington) end was developed for a communications and science research facility known as the Australian Technology Park.  In 2002 the central part of the north-eastern site became the too cool for school Carriageworks performance space. The forecourt hosts weekly farmers' markets and monthly craft markets. 

 'Pediment with wheat sheaf-
old Henninges bakery in Wilson street -
now 'Original Finish'
2012 oil on canvas 20 x 20cm

Enquiries about these paintings :

janecooperbennett@gmail.com

The wheat sheaf on the pediment, reveals the original use of 'Original Finish' as a bakery.
The former Newtown Bread Factory, on the corner of Wilson and Watkin Streets, was run by Henry Henninges in the 19th century.The lane behind the factory still bears Henninges' name.

 Henry Henninges' bakery in 1912.

The building has been very sympathetically and respectfully restored, with small cracks and weathering bearing witness to its previous history,which is appropriate considering that its current occupier, 'Original Finish' specializes in antiques.

Henry Henninges Bakery in 1983

 The former 'Edward Brooks building had been occupied by squatters since about 2001.
The building had last changed hands (for a derisively small amount of money) in 1981. The owner apparently only lives a few blocks down the road, but allowed the property to rot, in a similar fashion to the Terminus Hotel and the Darling Island Bond and Free Store of Pyrmont. Landbanking played as an extreme sport.
Nature abhors a vacuum, so a variety of squatters and local community groups had apparently moved in.
They were forcibly evicted in a very heavy handed fashion by the riot squad on Thursday 31st July 2014.
The once-shunned building has now been bought for $1.7 million at a hotly contested auction and will now apparently be renovated rather than demolished. 

Related articles

Riot police raid Newtown Squat by Rose Powell, SMH Thursday 31st July 2014

Eveleigh Community Heritage Day

'From the Hungry Mile to Barangaroo'

My solo exhibition 'From the Hungry Mile to Barangaroo' will be held at the Frances Keevil Gallery until 24th March 2013.

'Goat Island from Moore's Wharf'

2013 oil on canvas 122 x 183cm Sold

The 'Hungry Mile''
2007 oil on canvas 100 x 122cm
Enquiries about these paintings
This exhibition will be the major event for Art Month, and will opened by Elizabeth Fortescue, Visual Arts Writer for The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday 5th March 2013, 6 – 8pm.

'Wharf 6/7' 1999 oil on canvas 61 x 101cm
'Harbour Control Tower from Moore's Wharf ' 
2013 oil on canvas 51 x 25cm  Sold

'L3' Crane, with the 'Taiko'

2006 oil on canvas 51 x 25cm

'Barangaroo from Glebe Island' 2010

oil on canvas 31 x 61 cm  Sold

'The empty wharf from shed 6' 2008

oil on canvas 31 x 61cm

'Interior, Wharf 8-9' 2000

oil on canvas 31 x 61cm

'Night, from bridge of 'Maersk Gateshead'

2009 oil on canvas 61 x 91cm

'The 'Southern Cross'

2007 oil on canvas 31 x 92cm Sold

Enquiries about these paintings

'Yellow cranes from the cage'

2007 oil on canvas 153 x 61cm Sold

'Capitaine Tasman' + 'Caledonie Express' night

2007 oil on canvas 31x103cm

'The last call of the 'Tampa'

2007 oil on canvas 31x103cm

'Forklifts in the fog panorama'

2007 oil on canvas 31x103cm

'The Pacific Dawn with demolition of Shed 6'

2008 oil on canvas 31x103cm

Enquiries about these paintings

The gallery was still hanging the exhibition when these photos were taken.

'The Last of the Hungry Mile' 2007 oil on canvas 180 x 122cm
FINALIST : 2008 SULMAN PRIZE, ART GALLERY OF NSW
'Walsh Bay Wharves, Moore's Wharf and the Hungry Mile'
2002 oil on canvas 122 x 152cm
'Relics from the 'Dead House' 2007 oil on canvas 122 x 100cm
Enquiries about these paintings

The paintings show the transition of the former wharf, East Darling Harbour, known as the "Hungry Mile", to the construction site, Barangaroo.

'Sydney Harbour Panorama from the Stamford on Kent'
2007 oil on canvas 25 x 153cm Sold

'Moore's Wharf from the bridge of 'Scholarship'

2007 oil on canvas 25 x 51cm Sold

Moore's Wharf, Sydney Harbour Bridge and Walsh Bay Wharves'

2007 oil on canvas 25 x 51cm Sold

'Wharf Skeleton' 2008 oil on canvas 75 x 100cm

'The wharves and High St from the Stamford on Kent'

2007 oil on canvas 75 x 100cm"

'The Last of the Hungry Mile' 2007 oil on canvas 180 x 122cm
FINALIST : 2008 SULMAN PRIZE, ART GALLERY OF NSW
Enquiries about these paintings

I've had a ring-side seat to paint this fascinating area, courtesy of many businesses and private individuals, who had to put up with having a self-appointed "Artist in Residence" paint from their offices, shops, cafes or homes.

'Harbour Control Tower from Moore's Wharf '

2013 oil on canvas 51 x 25cm Sold

'L3' Crane, with 'Taiko' 2006

oil on canvas 51 x 25cm

'The 'Charlotte ' passing Goat Island 2011

oil on canvas 15 x 18cm Sold 

'Goat Island from Moore's Wharf' 2010

oil on canvas 45 x 91 cm

'High Street from the wharf' 2007

oil on canvas 31 x 41cm

'Forklifts in the fog' 2007

oil on canvas 31 x 41cm

Enquiries about these paintings

I've been able to create large-scale plein air canvases in the middle of the Barangaroo demolition site, from the top of the Harbour Control Tower and in Moore's Wharf, the headquarters of the Sydney Ports Corporation Emergency Response Tugs and Pilot Boats.

'Sydney Harbour Panorama from the Stamford on Kent'
2007 oil on canvas 25 x 153cm Sold
Moore's Wharf from the bridge of the 'Scholarship'
2007 oil on canvas 25 x 51cm Sold
Moore's Wharf, Sydney Harbour Bridge and Walsh Bay Wharves'
2007 oil on canvas 25 x 51cm Sold
'Wharf Skeleton' 2008 oil on canvas 75 x 100cm

'The wharves and High St from Stamford on Kent'

2007 oil on canvas 75 x 100cm

Enquiries about these paintings
These are the last outposts of maritime and industrial activity, once so familiar around Sydney Harbour.

'Wharf Skeleton' 2008 oil on canvas 75 x 100cm

'The wharves and High St from the Stamford on Kent'

2007 oil on canvas 75 x 100cm

Enquiries about these paintings
 
See also my previous solo exhibition in 2011 at the Frances Keevil Gallery : "May Close without warning"

Related posts

The Mother Art is Architecture

Eaten by Robots

The Last of the Hungry Mile