Between
the train and the river. when the train gets in. ice and sound
installation. 1992. Post-modern Experiences Casula Powerhouse.
My
initial encounter with the Casula Powerhouse was during a period
when the site was in transitional period, in a sense, experiencing
an identity crisis some where between power systems, electricity
generation board, local government and an Arts and Culture Complex,
'dreaming.'
The
complex ways that a site may be experienced was important to explore
in this work. Its placement between the train line and the river
had to be 'connected' historically, socially and economically
with selected sound (recording the 'use of the site' teenagers
hanging out, sunday painters, serious scrap collectors, a family
picnic, water-skiing, street drag racing and interviews of 'personal'
visions for the site.
The placement of a sensor, activated by the vibration of passing
trains, trips the power source on momentarily, to activate a number
of appliances fans, irons, radiators, and toasters perched precariously
on blocks of ice. The blocks of ice placed in proximity to the
drains (a source of pollution in the building) leads directly
to the river. The delicious smell of wild fennel (nostalgia) a
now noxious weed around the site, emanated via the drains from
the riverbank, to mix with the sound and melting ice.
The
Casula Powerhouse started its modern life as a coal burning electricity
generation plant. Obsolete before it was completed, its Placement
right on the banks of the Georges River near Liverpool NSW, west
of Sydney, a very long way from coal supplies was breathtaking
in its lack of vision. The liverpool train line was constructed
to supply the coal for the generator which in turn was supplying
the growing liverpools electricity supply. The growth of the area
outstripped the supply potential. The power plant was decommissioned
and partly scrapped and was a great site for some general 'vandalism',
before its 'Lazerus like resurrection' as an Arts Complex.
