Alison Bennett, Port Arlington, Victoria 2004 (detail)
Artistic Travels
19 July 2005
For Melbourne’s commuters, well, for any commuter, there’s nothing as disconcerting as stepping off the train to discover you’ve alighted at the wrong station. From next Monday 25 July, Melburnians beware. Artist Alison Bennett will have her photographic work In Ruins installed at Platform2 in the Flinders St Station Subway. Featuring panoramic images of building interiors in various stages of disrepair and ruin, Bennett digitally ‘stitches’ images together to create a seemingly continuous – but nonetheless disjointed – image. They can be disorientating and are certainly visually arresting.
Says Bennett, “Encounters with the inside of derelict buildings suggest some kind of conscious transgression. They are spaces that are usually closed to the public or isolated and inaccessible. I like the idea of commuters passing through ruined and abandoned rooms on their way to the CBD and Flinders St Station.”
Bennett is aware that people respond differently to the images – finding them alternatively beautiful and disturbing. They invite suggestions and impose narratives – especially as Bennett incorporates both metropolitan and regional interiors. Images of graffiti-ridden Docklands buildings condemned for demolition sit alongside others of abandoned farmhouses in central New South Wales. “I like that this subject can hold such a range of different meanings all at once,” says Bennett.
Platform2, located in the Campbell Arcade subway at Flinders St Station, was established as an exhibition space in November 1994 following the success of the first Platform project at the Spencer St Station. Platform2 is an independently programmed venue that seeks to provide an exhibition outlet for a wide range of artists, curators and designers at various stages in their careers.
The Platform2 project was established and developed by Richard Holt and Andrew Seward and aims to encourage artists to consider alternative spaces and ideas by providing a high profile public space that is in every sense unusual and “alternative”.
In Ruins was inspired by work created for the “Inside Hill End” exhibition that was run by the NSW Historic Houses Trust in early 2004 at the Mint. In Ruins will be in situ until 11 August.
More Information
In Ruins
25 July – 11 August
Platform2
Campbell Arcade (Flinders St Station Subway) Melbourne
Website: http://www.platform.org.au/
