Issue 562 (March 2007) - Office of Marketing and Communications

24U Q N E W S , M A R C H 2 0 0 7Before and after: Liddy’s photographs chroniclethe building process from start to finish.artisticREBIRTHTWENTY YEARS AFTER WORKING AS A CARPENTER ONTHE CONSTRUCTION OF THE STATE LIBRARY OF QUEENSLAND,PETER LIDDY RETURNED TO PHOTOGRAPH ITS REDEVELOPMENT.The exhibition New Ground: ConstructionPhotographs by Peter Liddy at the StateLibrary, South Bank, from March 10 toMay 7, documents the doubling in size of theState Library of Queensland and construction ofthe Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), the largest inAustralia.Mr Liddy is the Operations Manager at TheUniversity of Queensland’s Art Museum locatedin the James and Mary Emelia Mayne Centre atSt Lucia.“Liddy also capturesthe humour of theconstruction site, withportraits of workerswho have stoppedbriefly to have theirpictures taken,putting a humanface on the project”His detailed photographic study reveals theimmense scale of the Queensland Government’sSouth Bank Cultural Centre construction project,its architectural achievements and the work of thepeople who built it.Mr Liddy photographed the site from May2004, when work began, until both buildingswere completed in December 2006.The 50 black and white photographs in NewGround tell the story of the construction – rangingfrom the first stark scenes of excavated groundand inside the gutted State Library to images ofthe completed buildings.His variety of approaches includesarchitectural compositions of forms and spaces,documentary images recording constructionprogress and cityscapes, closely observedstudies of people and distinctive architecturalfeatures, and abstract compositions.On the job: New Ground gives the constructionof the art gallery a human dimension.Exhibition curator Timothy Morrell said NewGround was an important change of direction inLiddy’s work, because it focused on the buildingsbeing brought to life by people.“In the past his photographs have respondedto the feeling of space and atmosphere ofarchitecture, capturing a mood of eeriness ordesolation in abandoned, empty buildings, devoidof people,” Mr Morrell said.“These photographs are a reminder of thehuman dimension essential to the success of thebuildings.“Liddy has swapped his nail bag for thecamera. He has first-hand experience of theconstruction industry, construction sites and thediverse technical procedures carried out there.”Many photographs in the exhibition showthe builders doing their specialised jobs – menup to their ankles in wet concrete, with backsarched fixing steel in preparation for a concreteslab, on GoMA’s immense roof dismantling thecrane, pulling cables, fixing steel, installing pipes— or taking a break in the empty State Libraryoverlooking the Riverside Expressway.“Liddy also captures the humour of theconstruction site, with portraits of workers whohave stopped briefly to have their pictures taken,putting a human face on the project.”Photographs taken from the platform abovethe cabin of a crane, 40 metres above theground, capture the immense scale of the project,and in some cases place it within the context ofthe city.The project was an opportunity to record thehuge architectural compositions of forms andspaces that now occupy Kurilpa Point.“Liddy has captured surprising views ofadventurous architecture in the making,” MrMorrell said.The abstract compositions include imagesof mangled steel-reinforced rods extracted forrecycling, decaying shoes uncovered by theexcavation, random prints of workmen’s boots ina puddle of cement slurry, and intricate patternsof scaffolding and cloth-draped escalators.