13 Nov 2012

Art-House: FALLOW - Between Abandonment and Rebirth

Art-House presents
FALLOW - Between Abandonment and Rebirth

A derelict and vandalized house scheduled for demolition in inner-city Melbourne has been transformed into a unique and temporary art installation. FALLOW will be launched on 15 November and will be open free to the public on weekends commencing 17 November, until 16 December.

FALLOW evolved after respected architect Charles Justin purchased the run-down site in Chapel Street, St Kilda in late 2011. The adjoining houses were at the end of their lives - derelict and in a severe state of disrepair, with layers of notes, jottings and graffiti marking the walls. Squatters had left blankets, furniture and detritus behind. Justin planned to develop the site, but in the interim realized there was enormous potential to utilize the houses as part of a unique art project.

The motivation to commission FALLOW sprang from a meeting between Charles Justin and artist Robbie Rowlands. The project evolved further with the inclusion of artists Carmen Reid and Tunni Kraus. There was a strong collaboration between the four parties, with each bringing their particular perspective to an overall vision for the project.

Justin says, 'The FALLOW project explores the idea that like all living things, buildings too go through the cycle of creation - birth, growth, maturation, degradation, decay, and eventually rebirth and regeneration. I was really interested in examining this particular time when a building is at the end of its life, abandoned, taken over by vandals and squatters, and awaiting either demolition or rebirth in the form of a new building. The project title FALLOW acknowledges this process, whereby something that is exhausted and untended eventually becomes a site of regeneration.'

The three artists explored this theme by creating interventions to and with the building's structure and content. They limited the amount of new material brought into the houses, instead attempting to work purely with the building's existing fabric and the items found in the property. Each artist has worked on two rooms each, with striking and emotive results:

• Street artist Tunni Kraus has blackened one room while beautifying its neighbour with yellow patterning. An archway unites the darkness and the lightness of these rooms, highlighting the push and pull between belonging and owning, settling and settlement.
• Carmen Reid has used items found in the house - electrical cables, old bedding, and other malleable resources – to fashion ropes that embody the processes of change and imply a dreamlike escape narrative.
• Robbie Rowlands has turned the barely livable into the living, cutting into walls and floors to create sculptural forms that find a tension between destruction and gracefulness.

At the conclusion of the project, the buildings will be demolished to make way for a new development on the site, Art-House. Art-House will be a unique residential development, with the highest environmentally sustainable design standards in Australia (8 stars), and a strong integration of contemporary art.

FALLOW will be launched on Thursday 15 November and will be open free to the public every weekend commencing 17 November, until 16 December 2012. Justin invites all local residents, art and architecture enthusiasts, and anyone with an interest in history and the built form, to attend the public open days.

Art-House presents
FALLOW - Between Abandonment and Rebirth

Artists: Carmen Reid, Robbie Rowlands and Tunni Kraus

Launch: Thursday 15 November, 6-8pm
Public open days (free entry): 
Saturday 17 – Sunday 18 November, 12–4pm; subsequent weekends until 16 December, 2–4pm.
Venue: Art-House, 54-56 Chapel Street, St Kilda East VIC
website: www.arthousestkilda.com, email: fallow@arthousestkilda.com
FALLOW is presented by The Justin Art Foundation.