11/09/2023
As of today, and will be hanging an ongoing series of paintings called Perth City Baths on our walls.
'Perth City Baths was opened in 1885, where Elizabeth Quay stands today, at the bottom of Howard street. Designed by G.R. Johnson and built by C.
Nelson, the ornate, Moorish-style incarnation was finished in 1898. The baths were partially demolished in 1917, and completely removed by 1920.
This ongoing series of paintings extrapolates from the few known photographs of its symmetrical architecture - it's four towers capped by cupolas, it's 91m long jetty, striped awnings, jarrah balustrades, it's clear and it's muddy waters, and its surrounding vessels. There are no photographs of the inside of the building; these paintings can only postulate as to the happenings of a bathhouse on the banks of the Derbal Yerrigan/Swan River in the early 1900s.
*image 1: Hot Salt Baths or Fresh Water (2023)
105cm x 90cm. Oil & collage on board
*image 2: Perth City Baths, 1899
*image 3 + 4: Install day
