Demolition, no 6 – the most destructive material on earth was shortlisted for the Goulburn Art Award, 2024.
This painting is part of a series of works I produced in 2023 documenting the demolition of the Benjamin Offices in Belconnen, ACT. The twentieth-century brutalist architectural style complex is remembered by many Canberran public servants as the previous home of the Department of Immigration and possibly some of the most inequitable policy decisions in Australia’s history. I watched the building’s erasure and wondered what histories these huge piles of concrete and twisted rebar might hold and what is the social and environmental cost of urban renewal.
In this painting I draw attention to the aesthetics of ruin that signify apocalyptical visions of natural disaster and war. The title of the work is a quote from journalist Jonathan Watts, who describes concrete as ‘one of the most destructive materials on earth’. However, despite concrete’s huge CO2 emissions and the local histories embedded in places, as a society we often destroy and replace buildings rather than trying to save and repurpose them.
Demolition no.6 – the most destructive material on earth, 2023, Oil on board, 42x60cm