The Museum of Lost Arts
Georgia Martel
Dedicated to my mum and Grandma.
Photos and diagrams employed with in this body of work including those of the existing site, precendent imag es and iconcs have been sourced from relevant research documents, arti facts, online sources and photography.
Acknowledgment of Country
This body of work was produced on Gadigal Land.
For upwards of 60,000 years Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have occupied the lands upon which we live today.
I would like to respectfully acknowledge the traditional owners and custoidians of the land on which the following proposal sits - the Wangal and Cadigal Peoples of the Eora Nation and recognise the ongoing significance of this place for all Aboriginal Peoples.
I pay my respect to their elders past, present and emerging.
Sovereignty was never ceded.
It always was and always will be, Aboriginal land.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master; so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster of lost door keys, the hour badly spent. The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster: places, and names, and where it was you meant to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or next-to-last, of three loved houses went. The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster, some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent. I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.
—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident the art of losing’s not too hard to master though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.
Elizabeth Bishop
One Art
In 1983 White Bay Power Station (WBPS) closed it’s doors for the last time. The lights went out and hundreds of workers left its halls. Their names still are scrawled in messy cursive on chalkboards within to this day.
In the time since its closure, over 200 proposals have been put forward for its re-development.
None, however, have ever been accepted.
This project responds to the Bays Precinct Transformation Plan, the NSW Cultural Infrastructure plan and a call for proposals by Growth NSW.
Brief Introduction 1
ABANDONED
SITE LOCATION
Something Wicked this way Comes
One might specuate as to why, after 200 propoals, nothing has been approved for the re-develoment of the site.
Narratives
Layersof
As identified by Kolko, adaptive re-use of heritage projects often serves as a wicked problem
; that being one which:
“is difficult or impossible to solve for as many as four reasons: incomplete or contradictory knowledge, the number of people and opinions involved, the large economic burden, and the interconnected nature of these problems with other problems”.
(Kolko, 2012, p. 1)
WBPS
Disconnect Opp os ing Historical
Adaptive Re-Use
On
As you can see, there are many reasons why the re-development of White Bay Power Station is difficult. As stated by Rowe, “anytime a solution is proposed, it can, at least to some signifcant extend, be developed still further” (Rowe, 1991, p.41)
TAPESTRY OF WICKEDNESS Poisoned // Contaminated soil // Significant Indigenous fishing grounds Disconnected from Harbour despite proximity Lack of Greenspace //
First Nations connections to site not recognised in Heritage Conservation Planning Industrial Heroism Phallic Symbolism // Prod uct of a Male Dominated Industry Working-class Suburb // Family Oriented // MOnSteROus ScALe Government owned // Funded by the Public
A
Opposing historical narratives
Mass production of single use materials Loss of Cadial Land - // British Settlement// Over Development of Foreshore/ TOXIC WASTE INSYDNEY HARBOUR Perrettet Government proposes demolition
An
Un-Mistakable Presence
These factors as well as the clear delapidation of the site and it’s status of abandonment have lead to an embodied sense of haunting of the White Bay Power Station.
It is not dis-similar to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory or Shaun Tan’s The Lost Thing.
It has, in many ways developed a presence that looms over Balmains waters.
THE MONSTER WITHIN
Perhaps the reason that no prosposals up until now have been successful is because of whatever lurks within.
This proposal seeks inspiration from the presence that haunts White Bay.
In other words, to awaken the monster within.
The Awakening 2
Extended Brief
Within Sydney, there is no lack of arts centres, galleries, museums or exhibition spaces. Prior research indicated, however, that accessibility to the listed venues is highly exclusive (both socially and econom ically) and the experience un-inspiringly institutional. Conclusively, a gap was idenitified in accessible community venues for artisans of varying skill levels to participate and share in the curation of Sydney’s cultural identity (NSW Cultural Infrascrutcture Plan, 2021).
Correspondingly, my research highlighted a particular community of artisans whom have contributed immensely to Sydney’s cultural identity, traditionally from behind the closed doors of the private sphere.
This proposal seeks to present a re-imagining of the White Bay Power Station as a truly-public commu nity destination for the equitable participation in cultural artistic practices for all members of the local and broader community.
In particular, the site is adaptively re-appropriated to facilitate and hero the lost, trivialised or devalued artforms that are largely missing from historical documentation and artistic exhibitions due to their traditionally domestic nature. The aim of which is to redress the invisibility and silences surrounding women’s handiwork (Lee, 1998), by bringing the issue directly into the public realm.
This is achieved through an architectural analysis of the tensions between the physicality and symbols of industrial architecture and the implementation of decorative and humanisitic attributes as a means of ‘humanising’ (Alvar Aalto) the existing relic. This in turn, aims to create a full-circle narrative where by the site is reclaimed by the communities who were previously excluded from it, to participate in the handcrafts and artistic practices that were lost to industrial mass production.
The social impact of which may include the bringing together of communities through the archiving of surviving artefacts and the sharing of ancestral knowledge through a celebration of crafts and oral histories.
“Traditional craft and skills such as weaving, forging and soldering are in danger of being lost as demand falls due to the digital age. Traditional crafts are now in the hands of an aging population”
(Hannah Ellis-Peterson, The Guardian, 2015)
“We do have very few craftsmen left who are truly artists and truly craftsmen. They are the survivors of the 19th Century Arts & Crafts movement and are like witnesses to a past age and a disappearing world and can be counted on the fingers of one hand.”
(Schaefer, 1958 pp.269)
“For women have sat indoors for millions of years, so that by this time the very walls are permeated by their creative force, which has, indeed, so overcharged the capacity of bricks and mortar that it must needs harness itself to pens and brushes, and busi ness and politics.”
(Abruzzo, 2006)
Why W(itch)omens Craft ?
Part of the strategy for domesticating WBPS includes creating balance. In other words, giving back what he building lacks. And who has the buildng historically lacked?
(most people actually)
But also .... Women.
The aims of which aim to address 4 areas of social and cultural sustainability:
1. Draw light to the contribution of women throughout the industrial revolution, both domestically and in the wider world
2. Be an internationally recognised archive of womens historical crafts so that the skills and cultures are not lost to an aging generation
2. Facilitate intergenerational passing-on of haptic knowledge, skills, histories and story telling
3. Provide a safe, inviting, well resourced public facility for socially and financially accessi ble engagement with the arts and community
“A munciplicity of deeply personal, aesthetic, familial, social, practical and economic needs were met in the making of domestic craft artefacts, whose sym bolism reflected the values and mean ings of the women’s culture, homes and families.”
(lee, 1998)
Turning Concept into Space
Architectonic Expression
Influenced by the artistic strategies and practices of artisans of traditionally domestic crafts, my architectural proposal for the White Bay Power Station aims to utilise ideas of veiling, piercing, weaving and abstracting pre-existing forms within the site. This forms the strategy for the architectural interventions in the adaptive re-use of the building and attempts to ad dress the tension between the values of industrialisation and those of handcrafting.
Welcome 3
#Gather #Nourish #Meet The Handler Cafe #Inspire #Appreciate #Immerse The Undercroft Entry Hall #Whimsy #Transportative #Immerse Story Hall Theatre #Portal #Magic #whimsical The Belly Exhibition #Create #Connect #Sustain Potters Den Studio
The fourecourt becomes a water sculpture destination, a place of reflection, of transportation.
A memory of the waterways that lay before it.
1 2 3 4 5 1 . The Handler // Cafe 2. The Undercroft // Entry Hall 3. Story Hall // Theatre 4. The Belly // Exhibition 5. Potters Den // Studio
2 3 4
2 3 4
1
1 . The Handler // Cafe
The Handler
Cafe
#Gather #Nourish #Meet
Where the coal handling shed once stood, the skeletal out line of the Handler Cafe now resides. Striped to the bare bones of its structure, the cafe serves as a reminder of the destruction caused by coal.
This is where our architectonic strategy begins. Atop the charred timber battens of the sharp structure, floats an etheral external curtain.
A chainmail mesh, heafty, structural but flowy and draped like fabric.
Inside, soft upholstered lounges invite a casualness, a place to meet and gather with friends before you journey on wards.
1.
2.
3.
4. Chrome 5. Linen
6. Reconstituted 7.
8.
Palladiana made from reconstituted fly ash (from local sites) concrete and off-cut pale stones
Lindsey Adelman drop system sconce
Shou Sugi Ban (charred) timber
Textiles
Haas Brother “Ferngully” furniture Collection
Custom printed textile of tradtional womens medicinal plants
Uh, the underbelly. The place where it all begins, where you are brought into your journey.
This space serves as a exhibition hall, a place to exhibit the works that are created within.
#Inspire #Appreciate #Immerse The Undercroft
Entry Hall
2. The Undercroft // Entry Hall
1 2 3 4 5
1. Existing Brickwork, metal columns and trusses 2. Apparatus Lariat lights 3. ‘Living Brick’ Algae scales 4. Vintage tapestries, cross stitch and embroidered textiles 5. Lee Broom “Divine Inspiration” lights 6. Palladiana made from reconstituted fly ash (from local sites) concrete and off-cut pale stones 7. Patchwork Pojagi linen pod cover
Adark hall, where stories are told.
#Inspire #Appreciate #Immerse
Story Hall Theatre
3. Story Hall // Theatre
1 2 3 4 5
1. Existing Brickwork, metal columns and trusses 2. Palladiana made from reconstituted fly ash (from local sites) concrete and off-cut pale stones 3. Jam Poke Wall lights 4. Axolotl metal finish wall panels in brushed 5. Sustainable silk curtains 5. Trent Jansen furniture collection 6. Lindsey Adelman drop fixture sconces
The
Exhibition
Belly
#Portal #Magic #whimsical
At last you have made it to the belly of the beast.
Watch, as you yourself become part of the story.
4. The Belly
1 2 3 4 5
1. Existing Brickwork, metal columns and trusses 2. Apparatus Lariat lights 3. ‘Living Brick’ Algae scales 4. Vintage tapestries, cross stitch and embroidered textiles 5. Kinetic (movement sensored) track lighting 6. Palladiana made from reconstituted fly ash (from local sites) concrete and off-cut pale stones 7. Patchwork Pojagi linen pod cover
Potters Den Studio
#Create #Connect #Sustain
Share. Learn. Create.
5. Potters Den
1 2 3 4 5
1. Existing Brickwork, metal columns and trusses 2. Yellow Marb;es 3. Bespoke Joinery Pottery Wheel Table 4. Commissioned Wall Art 5. Kinetic (movement sensored) track lighting 6. Recycled Brick Flooring (from on site)
Fin.
