Mapping exercise- Matraville Library

Semester 2, 2010

Final Work

The Gallery from the King St Front:-




The gallery from the King Street front has a fairly simple open facade to allow full visual access to the sculptures and spaces within. It has an awning which is constructed from junk giving it a playful but not overpowering connection to the custom 'junk' furniture within.


The art dealer's apartment and workshop below:-


The art dealers own space is a private escape from the main gallery accessed via an elevator from the workshop. Though his space is a refuge from the hustle and bustle of the gallery it is nevertheless invaded with the junk that fills the entire space. I think this is an important idea as people who are interested in hoarding and junkyards cannot seem to escape from their obsession to a degree and I think also that being surrounded by this junk all the time gives the artists and dealer time to look at it and explore it, igniting more creativity for its use.

His apartment has a pool of water on top of it and a skylight overhead to allow natural light to enter the gallery and disperse over the space with a rippled water effect, interesting lighting for a gallery space.


Inside the gallery:-


The gallery space takes advantage of the full height of the ceiling to allow for the display of large scale sculpture pieces that may potentially hang from the walls or ceiling.



The viewers standing on the outside sculpture platform are view the art pieces and those viewing the art pieces in the gallery via a window. This sets up a sense of theatre between the art pieces and those interacting with them.



The gallery space is very open plan, meaning that visual connections can be made between the art pieces and the custom recycled furniture and all action can be viewed from any point in the gallery. The building uses the old walls from the neighbouring buildings painted in white, so that they have an old, textural, grunge sense while still providing a white/ less distracting backdrop for the art pieces.

The courtyard area / junkyard:-


The courtyard/ junkyard space has been organised so that half of it is a junkyard where people can come and donate their old belongings to be turned into art, and the other half is a planned space which has been handed over to the public for use. The right side of the courtyard has a raised platform for sculpture display and visual access to the gallery which may also be used as seating by the public. It also has a potential sculpture playground for children.



Sectional Photographs

Ideas and drafts

This drafts page shows some of the sketches that I produced at the draft stage of the design process. The sketches of the King Street facade show different explorations of an idea which I wanted to portray based on a hotel which I read about in Holland. This hotel uses the idea of the classical elements of its historical buildings but multiplies these elements to the extreme, creating a facade which is very playful and fun but still remeniscent of the past.This would relate to the historical nature of Newtown and create a sense of the haphazrdness/ craziness which it seems to portray. I decided not to pursue this idea in my final scheme.



I chose to go with a much more subtle and open scheme with my facade based partly on the awnings of Goulds Book Shop, another shop along King Street.This awning has old posters stuck to its underside, showing a mish mash of different images, and a pleasant suprise for those passing under it. I want to do the same with my awning using pieces of junk in its construction to give a sense of delight to those passing under it.

My chosen art style and client

I took inspiration from my art style and client from the closeby Marrickville Reverse Garbage, which is a community/ coop centre where buisnesses and individuals can leave their waste which is then resold for creative/ artistic uses. I loved the idea of a junkyard/gallery as I think it would fit in well with the aesthetic and feel of Newtown as a place of creativity, haphazardness and general grunginess.

I think that there is a strange appeal to junkyards. People are curious to explore and discover their contents sometimes to an almost obsessive point. I think using this aesthetic would draw people into my gallery space and ignite their curiosity.

I also Took inspiration from this young and upcoming artist called Marc Antony Polizzi. He uses found objects, normally considered as junk in large scale sculptural/Installation pieces. This is the type of art I might like to display in my gallery.

"My work uses a process of reconstruction and unification to examine the domesticated chaos of the post consumer world. This area where the relatively ordered and relatively disordered coexist and interact might seem like a contradiction, considering the more austere and violent sense of chaos. However it is in this gray area in which I construct my work. These installations draw on the history and narrative properties of found objects, to bring out the human connection often lost in the glimmer and glitz of an ever growing material culture."

Marc Antony Polizzi

Project 3 Newtown Analysis

Some More images looking at the site from the King street Frontage and the carpark/access around the back:-

Final Work

My design takes the curious traveller on a Journey and process from Buying their ticket, to waiting for the ferry, to exiting the waiting room and boarding on their boat. It explores the nature of a traveller or tourist who has relative levels of interest in either what is around them and what there is to discover, or is more interested in watching the humans around them.

The first room is where the passenger buys their ticket. Like the windows in the dutch paintings, the ones in this room are above eye level, and only serve to allow controlled light into the room. Once the passenger has bought their ticket they descend a few stairs into the lowered waiting room. These stairs are framed by glass, allowing the passenger a momentary glimpse of the outside. From the bottom step, the passenger has a visual connection with the outside world,
The waiting room has fenestration set above eye level on all the walls except for the one facing the water. This gives the room a strong sense of containment and directs the focus to the one wall, which has been articulated by angled slit shaped windows (inspiration taken from those in the photo below) which allow glimpses of the outside world.

Inbuilt masonry seating has been set up against the walls on either side of the room, meaning that passengers can either sit facing the framed views or are forced to turn away from them. This is related to my analysis of the 'traveller' who is either very interested and curious of their surroundings or less interested in their surroundings and more intrigued by watching the other humans around them.

The ferry is accessed via an outer waiting area which can only be accessed on the boats approach. A large set of automated roller doors open upon the boats arrival, only allowing passengers to leave their contained world at the final moment. There is a textural change, as the floor of the outside area is covered in gravel. The traveller has little visual access into the building from which they have come due to the nature of the windows and is therefore forced to look ahead to the expansive water in front of them and the boat. Thus the curious traveller is finally able to escape from their contained world and into the expansive beyond.