ARTPLAY 3D
This Artplay 3D set is a freeform model-making kit that gives the owner title to realise imagined city masterplans, cathedrals, low cost housing schemes, modernist residences, shopping centres, power stations, tree houses …
Artplay 3D is made by hand screen printing 1960’s & 1970’s photographs of Melbourne architecture onto wooden blocks fashioned from timbers salvaged from heritage buildings.
There’s a sense of familiarity working with these wooden blocks and images, they trigger memories, perhaps from childhood or a film, or even a constructed image from a story.
The photographs include architectural details from a range of genres and architectural styles, however the photographs were taken between 1964 to 1974 : Victorian Parliament, Mercy Hospital, Exhibition Building, tram commuters…
The wood comes replete with the tell tale signs of a previous life, a length of tongue and groove floor, a section of a 1950’s door, a keyhole… All the pieces in this set have a legacy both in their materials and their form.
The dark, fine grain beams were saved from the Botany Bay Wool Store, selected from rambled mix of original cut Australian timber, milled in 1846. The multiple species used proves a patchy early knowledge of the various timber qualities. The Wool Store was demolished in Nov 2009. Those original cuts live on in this set.
Another story of natural heritage is found in the exceptionally light 1950’s redwood door sections made from old growth Red Cedar from British Colombia, part of the giant arborvitae ‘tree of life’ group. Looking at the grain of this wood it’s possible to realise the scale and age of this species, 6m around and 80m high, living up to 1500 years and now found in this first edition of Artplay 3D.
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