Sitzkrieg

1. A stalemate
2. Warfare marked by a lack of aggression or progress.
3. inaction, doing little or nothing
4. phoney war

Coined on the model of blitzkrieg : German Sitz, act of sitting; see sitz bath + German Krieg, war.
For almost a year there has been an eerie paralysis at Barangaroo. After the last wharf was demolished, the excavators went home.
Nothing much has been happening. Just waiting.
Waiting for court challenges to be resolved, waiting for a change of government, waiting for a "short, sharp" review of the project.
Now the phoney war is over.
The calm before the storm has ended.
The demolition has finished. Barangaroo has begun.
LendLease has started deep excavation at the southern end.The excavators have reawakened from their hibernation, and the first crane has arrived.

At the northern end, a ziggurat of sandstone blocks has appeared. Sheets of black plastic cover the holes in the ground from where they have been extracted. The quantity of high quality yellowblock here could refurbish every heritage sandstone building from Macquarie Street to Sydney University, but that won't be its fate. It is doomed to become the Barangaroo Headland Park.

Quarrying beautiful yellowblock sandstone, only to cover it with grass or throw it in the water - it's a crying shame.

North Barangaroo Headland Park from my studio in the loft at Moore's Wharf

Painting of "North Barangaroo Headland Park from my studio in the loft at Moore's Wharf "31 x 61cm oil on canvas 2011

"The North Barangaroo Headland Park painted from my studio in the loft at Moore's Wharf "31 x 61cm oil on canvas 2011

And the sinister blue border line wiggles ever closer to Moore's Wharf, home of Sydney Ports Corporation's Emergency Response Tugs.

Related posts

"May close without warning" My Solo Exhibition at the Frances Keevil Gallery

Cut off

1. To remove via cutting.
2. To isolate or remove from contact
3. To end abruptly.
4. A designated limit beyond which something cannot function or must be terminated
5.  Break a small piece off from

At 4pm last Friday afternoon, I arrived back at Moore's Wharf after a day spent putting the finishing touches on my enormous painting of White Bay Power Station.
I saw a crane through the trees of Clyne Reserve, the pocket hankerchief size park next to the Sydney Harbour Control Tower.
The men in the workbox were from Telstra. They were removing Telstra's communications equipment from the strange little "belt" around the waistline of the Tower.
There is something symbolic about the phones being cut off in a building devoted to communications. 

"Sydney Harbour Control Tower and Clyne reserve" 2007 oil painting on canvas 46 x 36 cm SOLD

This is the Tower in earlier days when East Darling Harbour Wharves were still operational.
I have been told that everything has to be stripped out of there by the end of September.

The Barangaroo Development Corporation want to buy it, if they haven't already done so.
The prospect of its demolition inches ever closer.
Won't be long now.
I wonder if it will last until the opening of my exhibition?
I'll be showing other Barangaroo paintings from the 11th -30th October 2011 in my solo exhibition "May close without warning" at the Frances Keevil Gallery,Bay Village, 28-34 Cross St, Double Bay 2028.

Enquiries : info@franceskeevilart.com.au
"Sydney Harbour Control Tower is looking at a fall"
Henry Budd: The Daily Telegraph August 05, 2011

Related articles

• Power Base - Artist in Residence at the White Bay Power Station (janebennettartist.blogspot.com)
• Artist in Residence at the White Bay Power Station - Part 2 (janebennettartist.blogspot.com)
• White Bay Power Station : Inside Out (janebennettartist.blogspot.com)
• Power House (janebennettartist.blogspot.com)
• View from the ivory tower (barangarooartist.blogspot.com)
• Bacon and Eggs in Miller's Point (barangarooartist.blogspot.com)

The Empty Wharf

Ghost Tower

The empty wharf' oil on canvas 25 x 51 cm 2009

It's finally happened.

Sydney Ports Corporation has moved out of the Sydney Harbour Control Tower at Barangaroo and into their spiffy new purple and silver premises at Port Botany.

The mushroom head of the tower now stands, isolated on the empty wharf, looming above the holes and piles of demolition rubble starting to accumulate around its base.

The construction workers and excavators appear like rats nibbling away here and there until the entire complex collapses.

There was no fanfare or publicity to mark the end of an era.

Only an eerie silence.

Something old-Something New- Some paintings at Barangaroo

An Architectural Adventure
The 'Sydney Open' -presented by the Historic Houses Trust

My paintings will be on exhibition at several venues during the Sydney Open, a biennial event presented by Historic Houses Trust that showcases Sydney’s architectural icons.
On display for one day only on Sunday 7th November 2010

The Name is 'Bond' - 'Jane at the Bond' 

I will be exhibiting my paintings of both the 'Hungry Mile' and my recent paintings of demolition works at Barangaroo in spacious foyer of the LendLease headquarters at the '30 The Bond' 30 Hickson Road.

 I was "Artist in Residence" at the "Hungry Mile", East Darling Harbour Wharves during its last years as a working port, and have continued painting on this site during its exciting transformation into the new precinct of Barangaroo.

 I am delighted to have the opportunity to display some of these paintings 'in situ'.They are especially relevant now, with the entire area on the cusp of one of the most important architectural transformations in the entire history of Sydney.

 I have been the only person to actually witness the transition process on the spot. The people on the wharf have moved to the periphery of Sydney : Port Botany and Port Kembla; and the current construction workers have not experienced Barangaroo as a working port. This area had been a wharf virtually since settlement and the general public was never permitted access. I was given unprecedented access to all aspects of the port operations and painted on the wharves, from the top of Harbour Control Tower and even from the bridge of the ships. Later I painted the demolition of the wharves and the preparations for World Youth Day 2008 and now I am starting a new series of paintings about the construction of Barangaroo.

 Barangaroo from the Harbour Control Tower- 'The Hungry Mile' from the Harbour Control Tower 1 2007 gouache painting on paper 44 x 34cm

In this gouache painting you can see a rare aerial view of the '30 The Bond' building, as I painted this from the vantage point of the Control Room of the Sydney Harbour Control Tower. It is the sleekly elegant silver building south of the roller-coaster escarpment of High Street, in the historic Miller's Point precinct. On its roof is a curly thatch of greenery which is its roof garden. My paintings will be displayed on easels in the foyer, just in front of an escarpment wall of original sandstone.
I will also be exhibiting my early paintings of Pyrmont at Workplace6 on Darling Island as part of the Sydney Open, on the same day Sunday 7th November. For more information see my post My Exhibition at Sydney Open at my other blog 'Industrial Revelation'