Tag:rone
While other states also have painted silos, Victoria has the most painted silos standing at 26, as of July 2023. Only Victoria has a drivable trail with only 50-60 km between each silo. And Victoria has three separate Trails at that! The Silo Arts Trail and the Northeast Silo Trail are in regional areas. These trails are a one-of-a-kind public art project in regional Victoria, Australia, that’s truly amazing.
Silos as a canvas
This unique project aims to turn rural landscapes into an open-air art gallery. Northam, Western Australia, was the first official silo artwork in 2015, created by Phlegm and HENSE. However, the Silo Trail concept was initially launched by the Yarriambiack Shire Council in 2016. Since then, talented artists from Australia and all over the globe have been invited to paint these silos with their artistic interpretations.
The painted silo artwork is by famous street artists such as Rone, Adnate, Dvate, Guido Van Helton, Kaff-eine and others, who use these towering silos as their canvases to create impressive artworks that celebrate the local communities, culture, and history.
The Silo Art Trail
The original Silo Art Trail in Northwest Victoria started in 2016 and stretches 350km across regional Victoria, where the silos are strategically located in small towns along the trail. The artwork celebrates the people and culture of the region and adds an artistic touch to the picturesque countryside. Towns that feature painted silos (in driving order) are:- St Arnaud, Rapanyup, Murtoa, Horsham, Sheep Hills, Brim, Lascelles, Walepeup, Sea Lake and Nullawil, with more being added all the time.
North East Silo Trail
The North East Victoria Silo Art Trail began in 2018 and spans 132km. It starts just outside Benalla and takes approximately two hours to complete. Talented artists, including Guido Van Helten, Sobrane, Cam Scale, Adnate, Dvate, and Tim Bowtell, a local artist from Benalla, created the silos along this trail. The first town, Goorambat, has four works of art, including the interior wall of the Uniting Church.
From there, it goes to Devenish, St James, Katatamite and Tungamah. The CFA Water tank at Winton Wetlands is a must-see on returning to Benalla. A North East Trail map is available for download.
Winton Wetlands
The Winton Wetlands Art in the Landscape project aims to improve the visitor experience and raise awareness about the ecological significance of the wetlands by incorporating art installations and sculptures throughout the area. Among these installations are the CFA water tanks. The tank depicts the faces of three CFA firefighters on its side. While in Winton, they are still part of the North East Silo Trail.
Guido Van Helton was commissioned in 2016, as part of the Wall to Wall Street Art Festival in Benalla, to paint the water tank in the heart of the Winton Wetlands.
Echuca-Moama Silo Trail
Echuca Moama and its surrounding regions house four silo and water tank art installations. The Echuca-Moama trail can be done in a full day, but can also be split it into two half-day drives. The total driving time, without any stops, is roughly between 3.5 to 4 hours.
From Echuca, it’s a short 25-minute drive to Rochester where there are two silos painted by Jimmy Dvate. While n Rochester check out Iddles Lane featuring murals painted by Tim Bowtell celebrating Ron Iddles one of the state’s most respected detectives
It takes approximately 25 minutes to drive from Rochester to Colbinabbin. In 2020, artist Tim Bowtell painted the silos in Colbinabbin, showcasing important moments from the town’s history. These moments include the town’s connection to agriculture, community, environment, and the construction of the railway.
The final destination is Picola, which is located 35 minutes away, again painted by Jimmy Dvate. The artwork showcases the culturally significant Barmah National Park and the various wildlife that inhabits it. After visiting Picola, it will take another 30 minutes to return to Echuca.
Woomeland Field Bins
Explore Woomelang’s unique Mini Silo Art Trail, which offers a creative twist on the well-known Big Silo Art Trail. This trail features eight Mini Silos (Field Bins) scattered throughout the town, providing a fun and exciting way to discover the area. The Mini Silos celebrates the endangered species of the Mallee region.
In June 2020, a group of seven artists, including Jimmy DVate, Andrew J Bourke, and Kaff-eine, converted mini silos into a popular tourist attraction for the town. The mini silos showcase endangered species that are native to the area.
The Silo Art Trail showcases the transformative power of art in enriching communities. This painted silos project has revitalised rural Australia by using ordinary grain silos as canvases for extraordinary murals, providing an unparalleled cultural experience for both locals and visitors. As you travel along the trail, you will witness breathtaking artwork and become part of the collective effort to preserve the essence of regional Australia.
The Silo Art Trail symbolises resilience, creativity, and the indomitable spirit of the Australian outback. So, pack your bags, hit the road, and let the vibrant stories told by the silos take you on an unforgettable adventure!
The Rone Time Exhibition spans eleven rooms of the long-abandoned third wing of the heritage-listed Flinders Street Station.
Internationally renowned Rone (real name Tyrone Wright) is a Melbourne-based Australian street artist known for his large-scale mural paintings. Rone has created works in cities worldwide, including Melbourne, Sydney, Paris, and New York, often featuring portraits of women. He is known for his ability to create a sense of emotion and movement in his pieces which have also been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide. Additionally, his work can be found on the streets in many major cities.
Flinders Street Station
Flinders Street Station sits on the corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was the first steam rail station in Australia, and today, it still serves the entire metropolitan rail network. Opening in 1854, it is the oldest railway station in Australia, still in operation. It is also the busiest railway station in Australia’s second busiest city, with millions of passenger movements per year. Due to its age and architecture, Flinders St station is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register and, with its famous clocks, is considered a Melbourne cultural icon.
Previous Exhibitions
Rone has developed a stellar international reputation over the last twenty years. Previous installations such as Empire in 2019 (in the decaying Burnham Beeches mansion), The Omega Project in 2017 (A house about to be demolished) and Empty in 2016 (the Lyric theatre just before demolition), transformed abandoned and derelict spaces into hauntingly beautiful odes to the past. Time is no exception. It is Rone’s most ambitious project to date and the culmination of three years of work.
The Time exhibition by Rone celebrates Flinders Street Station’s grand scale, history and character, reimagining a period of Melbourne’s past long lost to progress. The immersive exhibition is inspired by an era when European migrants powered the city’s booming manufacturing industries, capturing the beauty in a forgotten, mid-century, working-class life.
The ballroom
The Flinders Street Station Ballroom is located on the third level of Flinders Street railway station. The ballroom was built in the 1920s as part of a redevelopment and was used as a venue for dances, balls, and other social events. However, the ballroom was closed to the public in the 1980s and has since fallen into disrepair. In recent years, efforts have been made to restore and reopen the ballroom, but apart from Patricia Piccini’s exhibition, A Miracle Constantly Repeated, it remained closed. Time, however, takes you through the ballroom plus ten additional closed-off rooms that have also been hidden away for half a century.
For years, I had heard all these stories about the mysterious ballroom above Flinders Street Station. I always wondered how much of it was truth and how much was urban myth. I was desperate to get in there,’
Rone
Rooms with History
Time is also a nostalgic love letter to Melbourne of the 1950s. Hence, each carefully curated room offers up a fictional history of the era. Large-scale portraits of model Teresa Oman, who has worked with Rone for over ten years, appear hauntingly on the walls. For Time, Rone put together a team of more than 120 professionals who worked for several months to complete Time’s delicate and intricate installation process. Because of the sheer scale of the exhibition, behind the scenes, the installation required scenic artists, lighting designers, heritage experts, riggers and many more.
Time Capsule
The exhibition is beautifully and authentically done. As you wander from room to room, becoming immersed in the installation, you forget it’s a fictional history. It’s not hard to imagine that if you rolled the clock back and stepped into postwar Melbourne of the 1950s, this is precisely what these hidden, upper floors were like. You begin to feel like you have just stepped into a time capsule with rooms frozen in time.
For instance, there are administration rooms with the typist pools of yesteryear, the lamps still burning, and a sewing room that is turning out uniforms with cobwebs undisturbed on the cotton reels. Classrooms for apprenticeships and mailrooms with massive canvas mail sacks and letters strewn on the floor. Coupled with haunting music and evocative lighting, the sets ooze history.
Further on, there are cardigans over the backs of chairs—a cup and saucer on bench. A switchboard with snaking cords connecting the outside world to the workers within, with one last incoming call blinking on the switchboard, never to be answered. A handbag hangs a coat hook, and a phone is left off the hook. Moreover, it brings to mind a disaster where everyone suddenly up and ran out, never to return. Chernobyl or On The Beach by Neville Shute, anyone?
In the background, music, by composer Nick Batterham plays, spilling from a gramophone in the ballroom – and from tiny speakers hidden inside answering machines and other objects. No part of the immersive experience is overlooked. For example, if you listen closely as you walk the corridors and rooms, you will actually hear a ghost train rumble through in the distance.
Behind the Scenes
While everything looks as old as the building – a lot of it was made for the exhibition. However, the pieces were designed and crafted to look old and authentic to the era. Numerous items were also sourced from Op shops, garage sales and gumtree. Twenty-four truckloads of props were delivered to Flinders Street, and everything needed to be brought up to the third floor. Specifically through narrow doors and up a tiny elevator or multiple flights of stairs. All the while life continued to hustle past on the busy street, coupled with an adjacent working train platform right on their doorstep.
The Newsagent
Just before the door that takes you to the Time exhibition is ‘the newsagent’. Here, an empty shopfront has been transformed. It’s now part retail, part exhibition and is free to visit.
Rone ~ Time Exhibition runs until April 23rd 2023. The exhibition is mainly sold out, with a few tickets remaining at rone.art for March and April.
Day two of our road trip saw us head off early from St Arnaud. We were travelling the Silo Art Trail on our way to Sea Lake.
Rupanyup
The first stop of the day was Rupanyup, 63kms to the east of St Arnaud. Twin steel silos painted by Russian artist Julia Volchkova in 2017 depict two young people, Ebony, who plays in the local netball team and Jordan, a footballer.
Sheep hills
Starting our run North, the second stop was 36kms up the road at Sheep Hills. Painted by Matt Adnate in 2016, it depicts Wergaia elder Uncle Ron Marks and Wotjobaluk Elder Aunty Regina Hood. Between them are two children, Savannah Marks and Curtly McDonald. Adnate’s artwork celebrates the area’s indigenous culture, and his depiction of the night sky represents the ‘dreaming’ element and highlights the strong ancestral connection indigenous children share with their elders.
brim
Heading off again, our third stop was Brim, another 42 kms up the road. The Brim silo, completed in 2016, was the first one to be painted in Victoria and the second in Australia after Northham, WA. Following the completion of the Brim silo, the town enjoyed newfound energy and optimism through the widespread attention towards Brim and the Wimmera, from both local and international media. It was from the success of the Brim silo that the Silo Art Trail was born. Guido’s work depicts four anonymous farmers, three men and one woman.
Rosebery
Just a short 24kms up the road, we came to Rosebery. Completed in 2017 by Kaff-eine, her artwork on the left depicts a female sheep farmer in a workshirt and cowboy boots. On the right is a horseman and his mount. The horseman wears an Akubra hat, bogs boots and oilskin vest – common attire for mallee farmers.
Patchewollock
Our next stop was Patchewollock. At 63 kms further north, it’s the longest distance between silos. As you drive down the road with endless flat fields and huge open skies on either side of you, you can’t help but reflect on the isolation of the land, the lack of ‘city’ conveniences and the continual hardships the farmers endure against droughts and fires. Patchewollock silo depicts local farmer Nick “noodle” Hulland. Completed in 2016, it shows the archetypal Aussie farmer in a faded blue flannelette shirt and worn jeans.
Fintan painted him with a solemn expression and squinting gaze to embody the harshness of the environment and the challenges a mallee farmer faces.
lascelles
From Patchellwock, it’s 50 kms south to Lascelles. With no breakfast, and 3 hours on the road, our tummies were rumbling, and we were looking forward to getting to our lunch stop. But, while close, Lascelles wasn’t it. Painted by Rone in 2017, its subjects are a local couple Geoff and Merrilyn Horman, part of a family who has lived and farmed the area for four generations.
Woomelang
A short 15kms further south from Lascelles is Woomelang (pop 150!). Our lunch stop. Being so far away from a major town, we weren’t expecting a sumptuous lunch. Still, given they promote the Woomelang “cafe” and its python mural, its closeness to the silo trail, and the fact that they have a ‘field bin’ trail within the town, we did expect a reasonably passable cafe. No. It’s a general store, combined with a post office and an opp shop that also sells fried food and pizzas. We settled for a potato cake and a couple of dimmies and sat outside as there was no tables or chairs inside.
Field Bins
The young Vice President of the Woomelang and District Development Association, Joe Collins (19 yrs old), had originally wanted their silo included in the trail. But, being privately owned, it couldn’t be included. He then came up with the idea for street art on the general store wall to boost the economy. Locals thought he had been in the sun a bit too long. Determined to forge ahead, he contacted Juddy Roller, who had started the silo art trail and was put in touch with Sirum. Sirum came back with a draft idea of the endangered carpet python.
A town meeting was called, and while many locals were against the idea of a snake on the wall, Joe prevailed. Once the python was painted and tourists started calling into town, the opposition vanished, and the townsfolk started looking at more ways to bring visitors to the town. They liaised with the Wimmera Catchment Authority, and eight new endangered animals were chosen to grace eight mobile field bins. Call into the general store to pick up a map. I would, however, suggest taking a cut lunch with you, rather than buying from the “cafe”.
Before leaving Woomelang, we also stopped by the Shearing shed in Cronomby Tanks Rd. Built of compressed kerosine tins, it stands as a monument to bush ingenuity during the wartime shortage of building materials.
Nullawil
We had one more stop before reaching Sea Lake. Nullawil, 65kms south from Woomelang, is probably my favourite silo. Painted by Smug it features a farmer in an obligatory checked flannel shirt and his mate a black and tan Kelpie.
Sea Lake
Turning north again, we covered the last 50 km to arrive at Sea Lake and the end of our days driving. The Sea Lake silo features a young girl on a swing looking over Lake Tyrell. Painted over three weeks in 2019, the silo embodies the wide-open sky of Lake Tyrell, the indigenous name of which is ‘Tyrille’ meaning ‘space opening to the sky’. After viewing the silo, we drove around town, capturing the murals on walls of stores. We didn’t go to Lake Tyrell before dinner, as our group were booked to do that on the sunset tour. Both decisions turned out to be huge mistakes—more on that in the next post.
Days End
After leaving St Arnaud around 8 am, we had made it to Sea Lake by 3.30 pm and covered the entire silo trail plus Woomelang and its field bins in 407 kms. We booked into Sea Lake Motel and dinner at the Royal Hotel. The old pub, built in 1910, burnt down in 2017. The only other pub in town had closed, and drastic action was called for. You can’t have a pub with no beer or a town with no pub. Locals started the Royal Hotel Co-op at $5000 per share and raised enough money to purchase the old pub. Seven months and 28 loads of rubbish to the tip later, the pub reopened in June 2019, providing 16 local jobs staffing the hotel.
Coming up next Sunday: Day Three is off to Mungo NP
Abandoned and vacant since the 1990’s Burnham Beeches’ decaying glory has been hidden behind large fences for the last 20 years. But this week, it was again filled with people, all there for the Empire Exhibition by Rone.
The Burnham project reimagines the spirit of one of Victoria’s landmark mansions, not accessed since the 1980s. Through this, viewers are invited to consider what remains – the unseen cultural, social, artistic and spiritual heritage which produces intangible meaning.
Rone
Burnham Beeches
Built between 1931-1933, Burnham Beeches was the home for Alfred Nicholas and his family. The adjoining 23 hectares of Alfred Nicholas Gardens were part of the property. It was effectively their ‘backyard’ but was donated to the local shire for public use after Alfred died.
Alfred passed away in 1937, and the family offered the home for use as a children’s hospital during WWII before becoming a medical and veterinary research facility in the 1950s. During the 1980’s it operated as a luxury hotel before being closed up in the early 1990s. Shannon Bennet then purchased it with Adam Garrison in 2010, and a major redevelopment planned at the exhibition’s end.
Plans for the site included removing a cap on patron numbers, turning the Norris building — built in the 1930s and now in state of disrepair — into a six-star hotel, and adding a microbrewery, shop and new restaurant inside the existing Piggery Cafe
Herald Sun Oct 2018
The exhibition runs until the end of April 2019. Following the close of the exhibition, the artwork will be removed. After that, the mansion will be returned to bare walls, and renovations will finally commence.
The Exhibition
Rone worked on the installation of the empire exhibition for over 12 months, with interior stylist Carly Spooner staging the rooms to reflect Rone’s concept of a mansion where the owners just walked out…and the mansion sat, decaying for the last 25 yrs, hidden from view. Again, Rone’s famous ‘jane doe’ portraits adorn 11 rooms with his model, this time being Lily Sullivan, famous for her role in Picnic At Hanging Rock.
The exhibition- being so long in the making was a huge gamble for Rone, but with every day sold out a week after the opening, it looks like it’s paid off for him. He is quoted as saying that he hopes to break even; I don’t think there’s any risk of that not happening – and in fact, I hope it brings him much more fame, glory and a good income.
The exhibition is amazing and something I am so grateful for not having missed out on.
Empire by Rone
March 6th to April 22nd
Burnham Beeches, Sherbrook Road
Sherbrooke, Victoria