In many of the interventions of the urban artist Rone, based in the Australian city of Melbourne, a shared constant can be observed, which links uninhabited places and their architecture with their human facet.
Applying soft tones, he transmits through architectural portraits different emotions that the residents of the buildings experienced at the time and that they had to leave in many cases in a hasty manner due to an accident or an eviction or simply because the economic activity that existed in the vicinity of the house ceased.
Creating an atmosphere where nostalgia and uncertainty dramatize the whole, managing to transmit in a poetic way the experiences that were lived in that place at a certain time not so long ago. Portraits full of nostalgia and eloquence that serve to fill architectural voids in languishing buildings.
For his latest work entitled Empty, made over two years in different locations in Melbourne, he explores the relationship between beauty and decadence. For this, she represents the faces of different women according to a specific context, a theatre, a single-family house, or for example the old facilities of a spa.
In this case the chosen scenario is the venue that housed, Art Nouveau Lyric Theatre, a majestic building dating from 1920, and that if no one remedies will be irremediably demolished. A space that Rone already knew because he had been exploring it on different occasions previously studying the possibilities it offered.
Read it in Spanish: Rone y su serie Empty, retratos en un teatro Art Nouveau abandonado
Finally he decided to undertake an epic transformation that would include not only the main stalls with their seating capacity, but also the rest of the rooms. A building in which the first time he was there he experienced a feeling that overwhelmed him, it had such a cold atmosphere, those high ceilings and the corridors in semi-darkness, that he tried to imagine those frequented by the artists and the public that filled it for seasons.
he set of murals is painted over some original artwork that was only revealed by accident when they decided to clean the wall before painting it. Running along both sides of the space are two rows of hanging art pieces that seem to magically float in the air. On the right side twelve painted portraits, on the left eight photos of Rone's works are displayed in a dramatic context.
A discreet peephole looking into the black warehouse next door revealed another mural rising from the rubble covered floor. The boards had numerous small holes drilled into it allowing light to pierce the black void. The whole spectacle was impeccable, a true testament to the two thousand people who came during its opening weekend when all the works were sold.
The works of the Empty series in photographic format are part of a traveling exhibition whose first exhibition held in October of last year took place in a disused hangar that was presided over by one of the portraits made on a large scale.
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