urban landscape – Page 4 – Alphabet City Press

1 July 201330 June 2013

Bookends

I look up a lot these days, and as a result am so often rewarded by the sight of something unexpected. Along the main street, any main street, shop awnings and windows are so often cluttered with a mish mash of clashing styles, but a little higher up the facades can be left relatively unscathed. The decorative carved sandstone on this entablature is such a beautiful piece of relief sculpture, and it reminds me of bookends, which makes it even better.

13 June 201313 June 2013

Pole

I was so focussed on the S in post and the O in office, and so horrified at the mess of signs, banners and posters covering the facade, with their excessive number of ill-chosen and badly used typefaces — I counted at least a dozen — that I initially failed to notice this fine juxtaposition of poles. I couldn’t bring myself to show the mess below the sandstone-carved lintel, and I am no fan of this style of screenprinted metal sign, but I do like the placement of the wonky telegraph pole in front of it. I also like the use of Eurostile, a geometric sans serif typeface, designed by Aldo Novarese in 1962 for the Nebiolo foundry in Turin.

26 May 201326 May 2013

Footpath

My friends and I were daytripping in Barwon Heads on a fine but blustery Sunday. We were full from an excellent lunch of fish and chips, had strolled up and down the main street, indulged in a spot of window shopping and made our token girls-day-out trinket purchase. Then the clouds came over and a sudden burst of heavy rain forced us to take shelter. And right there at our feet, the footpath — previously unobtrusive and unworthy of notice — was transformed by the wash of water into a work of art.

17 May 201317 May 2013

Bollards

Jan Mitchell’s hand-painted bollards are located along the Geelong waterfront from Limeburners Point to Rippleside Park. There are more than a hundred of these quirky and likeable figures, all of whom have played some part in Geelong’s history: there are sailors, footballers, brass bands, fishermen, bathing beauties, firemen, explorers, rowers, performers, as well as these lifesavers. Many of the bollards are made from wooden pylons recovered from the Yarra Street Pier which was destroyed by fire in the 1980s. I love the work that has gone into them. They are meaningful (not only historically, but in their contribution to the revitalisation of the town), well-crafted, and most of all their humour and whimsy proves that artistic endeavour does not have to be heavy and serious to be significant.

5 May 20135 May 2013

Elephant

Here’s something you don’t come across every day: a rusty metal topiary elephant in a suburban park. The park has quite a history: it was known as the Pleasure Gardens, and was the main attraction of the nearby Sir Joseph Banks Hotel, which in the 1840s and 50s was Sydney’s equivalent of a European spa resort. There were walkways and arbours, an amphitheatre, pavilion, botanical gardens and formal terraces. Australia’s first zoo was here too, with Bengal tigers, bears and, needless to say, elephants.

26 April 201326 April 2013

Trees

I’m guessing, but I bet this wall was painted by the cafe/gallery/landscapers on the opposite corner. It certainly improves their outlook. These abstract trees are so Australian in their greyness and grey-greenishness and even the grey-blue background has that hazy too-hot-summer quality. I was tempted to stop for a while just to sit at an outside table and admire the view.

14 April 201314 April 2013

Iron girder

For a few days the awning of this shopfront came down and the writing on the iron girder was revealed. There’s nothing special about it typographically—it looks handwritten by someone who is taking care to be neat, too uneven to be a stencil—but its very existence piqued my curiosity. What I learned about Messrs RL Scrutton and Co is that their employees’ third annual picnic was held on 22 March 1902. The picnickers were conveyed by steamer from King Street to the Fern Bay grounds of Parramatta River, where amusements were provided, toasts were made, athletic events were keenly contested and dancing was indulged in throughout the day in the pavilion. The awning is now back in place and the girder is no longer visible — in fact the shopfront with the awning replaced looks exactly as it did before it was taken down. The only reason I can think of for its temporary removal was that it allowed a brief glimpse into a hidden story!

27 March 201327 March 2013

Incinerator

Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin came to Australia from the United States in 1912, when they won the international competition to design Canberra. (Those roundabouts — what were they thinking!) Walter Burley Griffin designed the Willoughby Incinerator in the 1930s, after they had moved to Castlecrag. It was constructed as part of an employment initiative during the Great Depression, and in the 1960s was saved from demolition and was subsequently heritage listed. In its time it has operated as a sewerage plant, a restaurant, an office, and after its most recent restoration has become a community art studio space and gallery. The Griffins believed that architecture and landscape should be harmonious and that buildings should integrate into their surroundings, and this is certainly a fine example.

28 February 201328 February 2013

Mixed media wall

Here’s another one of those accidental wall works of art I like so much. Age, weathering, layers of worn paint, peeling paint, the splodge of mortar between the sandstone slab and the bricks. And on the left of the pinkish patch there’s some faint pencilled handwriting in the remnants of the plaster. I suspect it’s just some builder’s notes, but I like to think it is something more esoteric, a fleeting message lost in the passage of time.

7 February 20136 February 2013

Lightning

That flash of light in the sky during a thunderstorm is caused by an electrical discharge (about 100 million volts – take that you mere mortals!) which has built up in a cumulonimbus cloud. No wonder the lightning bolt is an important symbol in the mythologies of many cultures. It typically represents instant and divine intervention, and is seen as both creator and destroyer, fire and water, salvation and divinity, and supernatural power. This humble lightning bolt has seen better days, but I like it just the way it is: as if roughly coloured in using a stencil and a black texta with not quite enough ink. And it’s in good company with that rust and peeling paint.