It's time for part three of the Rone exhibition Time which is at Flinders Street station in Melbourne. In Parts 1 and 2 I told you about the exhibition itself and Rone himself. Now it's time to learn about the space - Flinders Street Station.
Now any Melbourian would know Flinders Street station, it's the main railway station in Melbourne, Australia. It's old (by Australian Standards) with the current building built in 1905-1908. It's an unusual building in that it doesn't look like most other things in Melbourne, and typical of the something owned by a government department it was actually never finished.
The main entrance on Swanston Street where the dome is and the building run along Flinders Street to Elizabeth Street - where the more traditional clock tower is. As you can see it's red brick and what looks like sandstone but is actually painted cement - it was meant to be stone but it was considered too expensive, it was also mean to have a big glass dome over the platforms but this wasn't ever completed either. The weird thing is it's doesn't look like anything else in Melbourne (where most things are bluestone) which does lead to a urban myth that this design was 'sent to Melbourne' by mistake. But actually it's a product of a design competition and a lot of cost cutting by government.
But to the space of the exhibition, as you can see the building is 3 storeys high (was meant to be four but you know cost cutting) everything above the ground level never really open to the public. floor two was offices and floor three (where this exhibition is) was the Victorian Railways Institute which was spaces for railway workers, which had a library, a gym, a lecture hall which became the ballroom, and a creche (this was the 1930's and 40's by the way) with a playground on the roof.
Over time these areas weren't maintained and fell in disrepair and were abandoned in the 1980's so for my lifetime, whilst the ground level (and various basements) have been a hive of activity the top floors have been a ghost town. Every now and then the government announces that they are going to restore it and open the areas as bars, shops, cafes but it never gets down.
But it is repaired enough to allow people in to see art axhibitions, which leads us (finally) to the exhibition.
Given there was a library up here it's apt that the first room today is a double story library, all built for this exhibition, with fake books (called, Empire, Time and Naarm)
This was the most immersive room so far, completely dark, and more gothic and harry potter -esque than anything else
Just a little natural light coming from one of the tiny windows along Flinders street
This was just another small room that you couldn't get into - the detail in this exhibition is amazing
Next up was the first of the pretend shops - this one was a pharmacy/general store.
And then to the famous Ballroom, everyone in Melbourne has heard about this ballroom, and it's supposed wonder - it's actually smaller than I expected - it would hold maybe 300 people for a sit down lecture, this structure is actually part of the exhibition and is glass, but it mirrors the vaulted roof. and this the end of the exhibition and the most 'art' part of it
And that my friends in the Rone Time exhibition - Unfortunately it's now sold out until the end of it's run in April, so even if you are in Melbourne you can't go but there is one way to see part of it if you are in Melbourne and that's to visit the 'shop' downstairs on Flinders Street which is open to the public and non ticketed. It's a pretend Newsagent and give a good sense of what the exhibition is about
