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.

Saturday 30 August 2014

Stairway to Nowhere

No way in, & no way out. 
No way up & no way down. 
High above street level and clinging to the northern end of the sandstone escarpment fringing Hickson Road in Millers Point, is a stairway to nowhere.
The entrance and exit are totally bricked-up. 
Everyone has heard of 'ghost signs' - but these are 'ghost stairs'.
Where are these spooky steps meant to lead?
Plein air oil painting of 'Tomason' bricked up stairway in cliff Hickson Road, Millers Point painted by Jane Bennett
MP2 Hickson Road stairs to nowhere
 



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 




 
2014 acrylic on canvas 31 x 26cm
It just sits there embedded in the sandstone.  
No-one can climb into the section in the centre, as the base is totally bricked-in.
Presumably it wasn't fully bricked up because of financial considerations, & the partial enclosure would serve to prevent even the most determined parkour enthusiast from climbing to the top
'Tomason' aka Thomasson or Hyperart Thomasson (Japanese: Tomason トマソン or Chōgeijutsu Tomason 超芸術トマソン) is a type of conceptual art named by the Japanese artist Akasegawa Genpei , a member of a Japanese art & architecture collective formed in 1986 known as Rojo Kansatsu (Roadside Observation). It's a term for useless, abandoned leftovers, which have been inadvertently preserved & even maintained as unintentional art created by the city itself. They are strange & haunting vestiges of the incessant churn of building, destruction, and redevelopment that characterizes the city. The equivalent of a human appendix or the vestigial remnants of tiny non-functional limbs on a snake's skeleton. 
The inspiration for the term was Gary Thomasson, a baseball player signed with great fanfare & given a huge contract, but who put in a such a disappointing performance that his name became a byword for uselessness. His position on the team was a fitting analogy for "an object, part of a building, that was maintained in good condition, but with no purpose, to the point of becoming a work of art." A 'Stairway to nowhere' is a type of 'Tomason' also known as a "Pure Staircase"(Japanese: Muyō kaidan 無用階段 )
It makes a quirky counterpart to 2 fully functional steps at opposite ends of the wharf precinct - High Steps & Agar Steps. The High steps were cut into the cliff face at the southernmost end of High Street. Agar Steps is on the western side of Observatory Hill, connecting Kent Street and Upper Fort Street. They were designed as a continuation of Agar Street, (now High Street) named after Thomas Agars, a merchant and City councillor. Originally called the Flagstaff Steps, Agar Steps was built to provide access to the Model School &Sydney Observatory.
During the early 20th century, the streetscapes of Millers Point were in a state of turmoil subsequent to large scale resumption by the Government as part of its program to eradicate the Bubonic plague.
By the 1920s whole streets had disappeared, new cliff faces had been carved into the bedrock and hundreds of houses were demolished & replaced. Quarrying to sea level along Hickson Road resulted in the creation of a platform carved into the exposed sandstone, creating a new urban terrace, 'High Street' by the Sydney Harbour Trust. 
The stairs cling to the wall above Hickson Road, leading up towards High Street & the deck of one of the three bridges built across Hickson Road.
The three bridges which carry Argyle, Munn and Windmill Streets over Hickson Road are rare examples of Monier Arch bridges. They were constructed along with the cuttings and other civil works in the area between 1910 and 1914 as part of the redevelopment of Walsh Bay by the Sydney Harbour Trust.  For the time, they were controversial & cutting edge technology as they were some of the earliest bridges to be built in Sydney using a new material called ferro-concrete (now known as reinforced concrete). 
The stairway to nowhere is a relic left over from the construction of the Monier bridge over Argyle street.

Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
I wish, I wish he'd go away...

When I came home last night at three
The man was waiting there for me
But when I looked around the hall
I couldn't see him there at all!
Go away, go away, don't you come back any more!
Go away, go away, and please don't slam the door... (slam!)

Last night I saw upon the stair
A little man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
Oh, how I wish he'd go away.
..
 
'Antigonish (I met a man who wasn't there)'
by Hughes Mearns
 
Except it was the stair that wasn't there.
In metaphysics, a paradoxical argument by Willard Van Orman Quine in his 1948 paper "On What There Is" used the phrase 'Plato's beard' as a term for the philosophy of understanding something based on what does not exist. 
'Plato's beard' may blunt 'Occam's Razor'.


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Monday 4 August 2014

Fish and chips, painting in Windsor

Painting a Thompson Square panorama

in Windsor

Painting Windsor Seafoods and its neighbour Gloria Jean's Coffee from just outside the Macquarie Arms Hotel.
My favourite fast food shop in Windsor!
plein air oil painting of shops in George st from Thompson Square Windsor by artist Jane Bennett
 TSW11 'George st from Thompson Square '
 2013 oil on canvas 31 x 153cm

Enquiries
 I usually painted the trees, river and the graceful Georgian architecture on either side of the park. I found that I really enjoyed painting Windsor's George st shopping strip or "Eat St".
I've decided to paint a series of studies of individual shops.
plein air oil painting of Windsor Seafoods A.C.Stearn building in Thompson Square Windsor by artist Jane Bennett
Starting to paint a small canvas
'Windsor Seafoods and Gloria Jean's Coffee'
2014 oil on canvas 28 x 36cm

Enquiries
Windsor Seafoods at 74 George St Windsor is in the AC Stearn Building.built in 1907.
The name "A. C. Stearn" and date is helpfully written in decorative maroon lettering on the top floor of the facade of this impressive heritage building.
One of the legendary attractions of Windsor Seafoods is their macaw.
However "Snappa" is only in residence 3 or 4 days a week, and by the lack of raucous screeching, this must have been one of "Snappa"'s days off.
plein air oil painting of Windsor Seafoods A.C.Stearn building in Thompson Square Windsor by artist Jane Bennett
Starting to paint a small canvas
'Windsor Seafoods and Gloria Jean's Coffee '
2014 oil on canvas 28 x 36cm

Enquiries
The original balcony of this handsome two story building  was unfortunately removed in the 1950's.
However it was later restored to its former grandeur  in 1975, and then was updated again in 1988, in preparation for the Bicentenary celebrations.

plein air oil painting of Windsor Seafoods A.C.Stearn building in Thompson Square Windsor by artist Jane Bennett
Halfway through painting a small canvas
'Windsor Seafoods and Gloria Jean's Coffee '
2014 oil on canvas 28 x 36cm

Enquiries
There is a little laneway between Gloria Jean's Coffee and Windsor Seafoods which is topped by a cream wall that I initially thought was a walkway from the top floor of one building to another. It isn't, or if it is, you'd need the skills of a tightrope walker.
On closer inspection it's just a few rows of bricks strangely attaching the two buildings, with no real function. It could be a leftover from a previously existing building, possibly even the Sir John Young Hotel which was built in 1865, then demolished in 1915 following a fire in 1913.
plein air oil painting of Windsor Seafoods A.C.Stearn building in Thompson Square Windsor by artist Jane Bennett
Halfway through painting a small canvas
'Windsor Seafoods and Gloria Jean's Coffee '
2014 oil on canvas 28 x 36cm

Enquiries
 Gloria Jean's Coffee is one of 3 little eateries in what apparently used to be a single building.
The other 2 are "Grill on George" and Stir Crazy" but aren't visible in these pictures.
plein air oil painting of Windsor Seafoods A.C.Stearn building in Thompson Square Windsor by artist Jane Bennett
Starting to paint 
TSW18 'Windsor Seafoods'
2014 oil on canvas 36 x 28cm

Enquiries
I finished lunch and my first painting, then started another.
This time I used the same size canvas, but turned it around to paint a vertical study of Windsor Seafoods.
plein air oil painting of Windsor Seafoods A.C.Stearn building in Thompson Square Windsor by artist Jane Bennett
TSW17 'Windsor Seafoods and Gloria Jean's Coffee '
2014 oil on canvas 28 x 36cm

Enquiries




















One of the charming eccentricities of the architecture is that the levels of the crenellations of the roofline of the 2 outer buildings are lower than that of the centre building.
plein air oil painting of Windsor Seafoods A.C.Stearn building in Thompson Square Windsor by artist Jane Bennett
TSW18 'Windsor Seafoods'
2014 oil on canvas 36 x 28cm

Enquiries
All 3 buildings have blue and cream striped awnings, which with the white canvas marquee, fluttering yellow and orange flags and blue and cream umbrellas of Windsor Seafoods, give the whole streetscape a jaunty air.