The Demolition of Beauty: Rone’s Hidden Artwork in Melbourne.

Collingwood based artist, Rone, is best known for his large scale portraits of beautiful women commissioned throughout the world from New York and Paris to Port Villa and Taipei. His latest works have been completed inside the machine rooms of the old Alphington Paper Mills on Heidelberg Road in Melbourne, which started to be demolished on March 7th. The iconic brutalist brick buildings will make way for one of Australia’s largest urban renewal mini-suburbs, Yarrabend.

This work is an extension of Rone’s “Empty” series which was unveiled last year and investigates the themes of beauty and decay. In “Empty”, Rone secretly created murals in abandoned houses and building around Melbourne and documented these works in a photographic print series.

In early March, only a small group of people were able to view the works before they were painted over and set for demolition.

The concept of documenting contemporary street art prior to its imminent removal takes the genre to a new level. This significant evolution has been recognised by the arts community via the addition of Rone’s “Empty” series being placed in the NGV’s permanent collection.

Related Post: Stories On Design // Empty & Abandoned Buildings.

[Images courtesy of Yarrabend. Photography credits as noted.]