Alan Wylde: Bricks and Mortar

Sorry, this event’s been and gone

When:

Wed 27 Jan ’10, 11:00am–4:00pm	Saving
Thu 28 Jan ’10, 11:00am–4:00pm	Saving
Fri 29 Jan ’10, 11:00am–4:00pm	Saving
Sat 30 Jan ’10, 11:00am–4:00pm	Saving

Where: Photospace, Level 1, 37 Courtenay Place, Wellington Show map

Ticket Information:

Admission: Free

Website:

www.photospace.co.nz/expo150.htm

Photospace Gallery invites you to view 'Bricks and Mortar', a new exhibition of works by Alan Wylde, on display from 11 December 2009 - 31 January 2010.

In Bricks & Mortar, Alan Wylde presents two bodies of recent work which are related by the title. Both series are concerned with the built environment, recording historic architecture and engineering in relation to recent building and the people who pass through and use the areas.

• Wellington’s Cuba Street
There is nothing grand but Cuba Street is one of Wellington’s great spaces. Its liveliness, variety and scale give it the qualities touted by Jane Jacobs (author of “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” in 1961) as the ingredients of a successful city neighbourhood. And the people agree – it is never empty.

These photos attempt to capture its buildings. They have individual architectural styles spanning well over a century but in scale most are sympathetic to their context.

• Post Industrial Landscapes

If you accept global warming is man-made, and many people now do, the Castlefield area of Manchester is one of the places where its seeds were sown. Two major events of the Industrial Revolution have connections here. Castlefield is a terminus for the Bridgewater Canal, Britain and the world’s first industrial 'true' canal built in 1760. The canal lowered the price of coal in Manchester by 50% enabling the growth of the first industrial suburb based on steam power.

In 1830 Castlefield became the Manchester terminus for the line to Liverpool, the first mainline, inter-city passenger railway. Robert Stephenson’s steam–powered Rocket won the prize at the Rainhill trials and was chosen as locomotive for the railway, in preference to horses. Why are the railway lines in the photographs, carried on such splendid viaducts? The answer is the canals got there first and the railways had to take to the air.

Exhibition opening Thursday 10th December from 5 till 7pm.

Image from 'Wellington's Cuba Street' - © Alan Wylde.