AFKIAJTB

A Fitted Kitchen is a Joy to Behold
Patrick Ronald and Shannon McDonell

The work is now complete and we have managed to create an artwork that lurks in the shadows of Entally House, presenting the all too possible future of the estate. Our photograph does not impose itself within the environment, instead, it is neatly fitted and the high cupboards loom silently over the century old furnishings of the Entally kitchen.

The semiotic language of fluorescent ribbon wrapped around trees and stakes that have been driven into the garden has sent shivers through viewers we have spoken with during our install.

A Fitted Kitchen is a Joy to Behold invites the audience to consider the progressive swallowing of rural lands by suburbia. This photographic installation also examines our contemporary value of craftsmanship, preservation and the moral implications of change.

This work is a new commission for 'In Teers' presented by Ten Days on the Island, NRM North and Tasmanian Regional Arts.

For more of the Ronalds work visit their web page

 

The Exhibit

26 March 2011

We are now back in NSW, and the official Ten Days has commenced. The opening went very well and we are very pleased with the result. Seeing as it is no longer a surprise, here are a few images of 'A Fitted Kitchen is a Joy to Behold', but visiting it in the flesh is much more interesting if you are in the area.

Entally Patrick Ronald and Shannon McDonell

Entally Patrick Ronald and Shannon McDonell

Entally Patrick Ronald and Shannon McDonell

Entally Patrick Ronald and Shannon McDonell

Entally Patrick Ronald and Shannon McDonell

 

See You at the Opening

SUNDAY 20 MARCH
A FITTED KITCHEN IS A JOY TO BEHOLD
BY PATRICK RONALD and SHANNON MCDONELL
COMMENCING AT 5PM
ENTALLY ESTATE
782 MEANDER VALLEY RD HADSPEN

 

The Photograph

16 March 2011

The Print finally arrived and has been stretched over the frame. After the print was in place we then drove the pegs of the faux housing estate into the freshly mown lawns of Entally.

It appears the project has had the effect we were going for. We are receiving a lot of concerned comments in regard to the pegs and fluoro tape around the giant pines in the Entally grounds, and the grim modern kitchen has not received one vote in its favour.

 

Pegs
House Plots

 

Ribbon
Patrick measuring the lots between the trees marked for felling

 


Shannon labelling the subdivision

 

Patrick in the frame
Patrick securing the backing weights


Cat on Print
After unrolling the print, we had a visit from Ginger Cat

 

Roll out
The first view of the print

 

All Ready...We Just Need The Print

15 March 2011

Patrick spent the day painting the pegs for the sub-division, and I padded the edges of the frame to make it simpler to install the photograph.

 

Patrick Painitnig

Patrick Painting

 

Installation Begins

14 March 2011

The end of our first day of installation and the frame is up, and fits like a glove. Patrick's earlier measurements were spot on, and can you believe this all fit in the back of our car?


All finished!!

 


Over half way

 

Patrick Ronald
The fun begins!!

 

Patrick Ronald - Entally
Patrick unpacking the very well loaded car

Patrick and Shannon are in TAS

13 March 2011

After a lovely trip on the Spirit of Tasmania we are finally here to begin our installation. Here is a shot of our car as we were departing Melbourne. We were first in line!

Patrick Ronald

Winners of the New York Artists Wanted Photography Prize

9 March 2011

Today we found out that we are the winners of the Photography category for the Artists Wanted a Year in Review prize. We look forward to a lot of publicity from the win and are hoping to be picked up by a gallery in the US! Click here for further details - Artists Wanted Announcement .

The Announcement

Artists Wanted A Year in Review - The amount of inspiring and talented work we received for our Year in Review open call was tremendous, making the selection process extremely difficult for our jury members. However, after an excruciating process and thorough review, we are pleased to announce the official award recipients in the following categories: Fine Art, Design & Illustration, Photography and Motion & Sound. Congratulations to Elin Melberg of Stavanger, Norway (Fine Art), Vic Lee of London, U.K. (Design & Illustration), Patrick Ronald & Shannon McDonell of Ganmain, Australia (Photography) and Eric Souther of Alfred, N.Y. (Motion & Sound)!

 

Step Five - The Frame

6 March 2011

Patrick has almost completed the flat pack frame/ box that will travel with us in our car to Tassie this coming weekend for our week of installation. The clever design means we are able to attach the print to the frame that is assembled in sections to ensure we can construct it within the tight area of the Entally kitchen, as we are not able to move all of the furniture out of the way.

 


Patrick Building the flat packable frame.


Here is an idea of the scale - Pretty big huh!


Patrick's flat pack plan

Step Four - The Reconstruction

28 February 2011

Well the image is finished, and has been sent through to Eye Spy in Hobart to be printed on a canvas substrate. We have had test prints done and the resolution is amazing, so it looks like things are on track.

 


Shannon after a few full-on months and a couple of sleepless nights spent completing the Kitchen

 

Step Four - The Shoot

23 December 2010

TThankfully my brother is a Builder and has access to top of the line Kitchens that are awaiting excited new owners!! Here are some shots of Patrick taking the hundreds of images needed to reconstruct the Kitchen we have found for Entally. It even has a river theme - the style of the faux wood printed melamine doors is called River Red Gum, very fitting. All up the shoot took a little over 15 hours. Thank you again to Nikon Australia for the use of their D700 full frame body!!

 

1
Patrick setting up for the big shoot

 

2
Measuring everything to make sure it is to scale for Shannon!!

 

3
Taking one of hundreds of close-ups

 

4
Aligning the camera for a another shot

 

Step Three- The Site Visit

26 November 2010

We were asked to attend an "Art Made Easy" workshop to meet the In Teers project team and fellow artists and give a 20min presentation on our project.

Here is a link to our presentation and supporting notes.

While in Launceston we visited Entally Estate to measure and take images for use in the final work. We needed a view out of the window to incorporate into the photographic kitchen.


Interior of the Entally House kitchen - This is the wall where we will be installing the modern kitchen

We have also thought about adding some exterior elements to the project. We are going to plot out a subdivision on Entally's lawns complete with trees flagged for felling. Should get a bit of a reaction from the audience


Aerial view of Entally Estate with the subdivision we will add with pegs and flags

Step Two - Think of an Achievable Idea

24 October 2010

After discussing these ideas with our curator, Jane Deeth, it became apparent that these ideas, although wonderful for us to use for our next work, would not be achievable at the sites near Launceston that Jane had scouted. For security reasons it would be better if the work was indoors so, we revisited our last project - Habits and Habitat - and decided on a more subtle approach to portray our theory. We would install a modern kitchen in the historical kitchen of Entally House, Hadspen.

Entally's Kitchen is currently displayed in its 'original' style of 1819, so by contrasting the existing scene with an emulated scene of a modern kitchen with a suburb encroaching the property boundary through the window, we were still able to make the same statement in regard to the affects of population growth on the current rural areas surrounding Launceston, while also making a comment on the quality of modern design and craftsmanship compared to that of Entally House - questioning the importance of preservation and conservation of existing properties and landscapes.

 

 

Our Initial Proposal

“A Fitted Kitchen is a Joy to Behold”
Peri-Urban Impact
“A Fitted Kitchen is a Joy to Behold” will explore the impact of population growth into the peri-urban areas of Launceston, and in particular the Tamar Estuary and Esk Rivers System (TEERS). A newly completed modern kitchen will be photographically ‘installed’ in the Entally Estate house, creating an emulated future for the historic site, questioning the permanence of conservation and preservation of Tasmania’s cultural heritage. An encroaching urban sprawl will be digitally simulated as a view from the existing kitchen window.

From the 1830’s Australian’s have been emptying out of the cities and into the “Suburbs’. With the introduction of public transport in the form of fast trains and trams followed by privately owned cars, living in the suburbs has been the dominant form of housing from the 1880’s. Since then our population has increased by 10 times and the need for residential land has grown proportionately, pushing home owners into the peri-urban areas of our cities.

“The non-urban areas within 150 kilometres of Australian metropolitan centres are undergoing rapid change and fragmentation, and in many cases, intense conflict. They are the sites of all outer urban expansion; are important sources of environmental, natural and human resources; produce over one quarter of the value of agricultural production; are the locations of much urban water; and contain 50 per cent of threatened biodiversity.” - Change and Continuity in Peri-urban Australia, Authors: Social and Institutional Research Program – Land and Water Australia. 2008.

The everyday Australian is still striving for the ‘Aussie Dream’ of owning their own home, driven by affordable housing and a more attractive landscape and lifestyle the suburbs are fast encroaching on peri-urban areas, putting pressure on existing habitats and resources.

Structural Design
The imagery for “A Fitted Kitchen is a Joy to Behold” will be life size, turning the existing kitchen into a 1:1 diorama. The photographic ‘wall’ will be constructed using our developed photogrammetry techniques to create a precise and detailed representation of the modern kitchen. The realism of the work will immerse the viewer in the constructed scene, and allows the viewer to interact and perceive themselves within the reality of the scene. The view from the window will retain the current landscape but will have a modern day suburb superimposed at the estate’s boundary.

The structure will consist of 1 main composite image created from thousands of individual photographs, Below are simulated views exhibiting life size scale and construction plans.

 


 

Points of Investigation
“A Fitted Kitchen is a Joy to Behold” investigates existing conservation plans and statistics along with historical changes that have led to the current trends in housing and technology-

  • The notion of Heritage – What is preserved and why. When is it ok to change a landscape – is it all about money?
  • Tasmania’s Identity= Heritage, Stately, Preservation. Will this help keep listed buildings safe?
  • Photography and Perception. What is real?
  • State of the times – Peri-urban is a lifestyle choice. What impact is a growing population having on the environment.
  • Fashion and contexts – Technology has made things faster= make life easier= more leisure time. We have become more self serving – not as much need for community with globalisation?
  • Modern housing estates. New suburbs look unfinished and rarely blend in to the surrounding landscape, lacking craftsmanship, size over quality, functionality
  • Urbanisation/ Globalisation – Death of small communities. Suburbs have developed with the decentralisation of inner city suburbia.
  • Agriculture – use of farmland. Small plot farms vs. broad acre mangers etc. Council regulation on subdivisions and governmental impact studies.
  • Easy living associated with new technology.
  • Environmental impact and biodiversity/ water/ amenities/ infrastructure etc.

Simulated Installation in Entally House
Self supporting free standing photographs printed directly onto cardboard substrate. 5 Panels equalling 1.8m wide by 2.66m high, will be trimmed to fit between beams and reveal the existing window without needing to anchor to the room. The only impact the structure will have on the room will be that it sits on the floor. We will arrange that it is on foam matting.

 

 

Step One - Think of an Idea
20 May 2010

When asked to be the major commission for Ten Days on the Island 2011, we wanted to create a work that was more ambitious than anything we had done before. The brief was to comment on issues connected with Peri-urban expansion, so our first thoughts were to continue with our large scale architectural photography to create a series of life size facades in paddocks surrounding Launceston, we quickly realised this would be a tall ask on the budget, so turned our attention to a new concept. We would install photographic rooms in which you could view superimposed suburban housing estates from within that overlayed onto the undeveloped farmlands of Tasmania's North. In addition to the photographic rooms, we would place camera obscuras disguised as observation binoculars that would show the suburban scenes from different points of view, to fully engage the viewers in the idea of how increasing population will affect the infrastructure, and the water and waterways, of current rural areas neighbouring cities.

 

Exhibition Material