Art of the city

Eighteen large portraits will soon gaze at Broadway from Chippendale’s Carlton and United Brewery site.

Selected for their connection to the brewery over its 170-year history, the faces will be mounted on the site’s remaining heritage structure in a piece titled Local Memory.

At night, passersby will be treated to what the artist describes as “a neon colour show”.

Artist Brook Andrew is sourcing historical and voluntarily submitted portraits.

“Already I’ve spoken to a couple of people – one woman who was a young girl in one of the pubs, on the corner of Abercrombie Street,” he said. “There’s a photo of her when she’s about five years old.”

He says the piece is a memorial, and an extension of his work with history and memory.

“[There are] people from the First World War and Second World War who were drinking in the pubs, and also women serving in the pubs. There’s also some great photos of paramedics who went into the area,” he said.

“I’m very interested in how we see ourselves, and history, and who has access to that.”

Launched in March, the piece is the first of four, each appearing at two to three month intervals across the year.

All of the works will be created by internationally significant Australian artists.

Co-curator Michaelie Crawford said she wants the other works to be a surprise.

“They’re all three dimensional works, and they’re really lively, they’re really engaging. Some of them are quite humourous, some of them are quite poetic. They’re all very bold, and I think that they’ll be works that the public can relate to really well, and will be a joyful experience.”

All of the artworks will address the history of the brewery.

“So, some of the social history, the cultural history, the working history, the history of brewing itself, and also to think about the future of the site as a sort of sustainable development,” Crawford said.

“They were really quite free to pick up on whatever aspect they wanted to, to develop a large scale work that would be quite arresting, and draw the attention of the public.”

Sydney College of the Arts painting lecturer Mikala Dwyer will create her work on top of the structure’s chimney. Her recent exhibits in Sydney include A Lamp for Mary, at Mary’s Place in Surry Hills, and The Additions and the Subtractions at the 2010 Biennale, which featured a circle of eclectic inward-facing sculptures.

Claire Healy & Sean Cordeiro’s piece will face south to Abercrombie Street. In 2008 the Casula Powerhouse exhibited their installation The Golden Mean – an Austin 1800 car jacked up by gold painted bricks.

A piece by Caroline Rothwell will feature on the structure’s southeastern corner. Her 2008 installation Blowback, featured a room of cast-iron imagined creatures and a Tasmanian tiger, that appeared as if they were blow-up figures.

“‘What is coming next?’ is part of the overall concept of doing the artworks there,” Crawford said.

by Lawrence Bull