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A stylised footprint acknowledging the architectural and cultural history of early European settlement in Sydney.
Artist: Anne Graham
Curator: Sally Couacaud
Curator: Sally Couacaud
Artwork description
Set into granite paving is a stylised footprint of the Georgian houses once occupying the site at the eastern end of Martin Place. Commissioned as part of the Sydney Sculpture Walk for the Sydney 2000 Olympics, Passage by Anne Graham acknowledges the architectural and cultural history of early European settlement. It references surrounding Georgian buildings such as the Conservatorium, the Museum of Sydney, the Barracks and the Mint.
The earliest recorded dwellings on this site are 2 Georgian cottages documented by Joseph Fowles in his book Sydney 1848. The house plan is marked out by polished black granite paving and metal grilles lit from below, through which a light mist rises periodically, evoking ghost-like walls.
The 3 bronze bowls, reflection pools and fountains, represent Georgian washrooms. The shape of the bowl is inspired by ‘The Improved Sponging Pan, with turnover rim to prevent splashing’, from James McEwan & Co.’s Illustrated Catalogue. Georgian washrooms were placed at the back of the house, and water would have been carried up from the Tank Stream for use in the bathing area, kitchen and laundry of the original house.
The artist is particularly interested in the workings of the city as a metaphor for the living body, portrayed here by the water elements and mist which animates the site by rising and falling like breath.
Artist
Anne Graham lives and works in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. She has a Master of Art from Royal College of Art, 1973 and in 2007 received a PhD from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. She works in performance and installation, and has long studied the association between materials and memory.
Inscription
The Sydney Sculpture Walk plaque for this artwork reads:
Passage
Anne Graham
The earliest recorded dwellings on this site are two Georgian Cottages, documented by Joseph Fowles in his book Sydney in 1848. The placement of the walls of the original Houses is recalled by the inlaid granite floor plan. Rising from the floor plan at certain times of the day will be ghostly walls of mist, in the evening these walls will be illuminated to suggest the spaces occupied by past residents of this place. The bronze bowls, reflection pools and fountains represent Georgian washrooms, the shape from James McEwen’s illustrated catalogue. Georgian washrooms were placed at the back of the house and water would be carried from the Tank Stream for use in the kitchen and laundry.
Installed January 2000.
Anne Graham
The earliest recorded dwellings on this site are two Georgian Cottages, documented by Joseph Fowles in his book Sydney in 1848. The placement of the walls of the original Houses is recalled by the inlaid granite floor plan. Rising from the floor plan at certain times of the day will be ghostly walls of mist, in the evening these walls will be illuminated to suggest the spaces occupied by past residents of this place. The bronze bowls, reflection pools and fountains represent Georgian washrooms, the shape from James McEwen’s illustrated catalogue. Georgian washrooms were placed at the back of the house and water would be carried from the Tank Stream for use in the kitchen and laundry.
Installed January 2000.
