Pyrmont and Beyond, 1985

KEIVN CONNOR
Pyrmont and Beyond, 1985
Oil and acrylic on linen
150 x 180 cm

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Artist Kevin Connor, title, Pyrmont and Beyond, 1985. This painting, as titled Pyrmont and Beyond, depicts the suburb of Pyrmont prior to Darling Harbour’s redevelopment. The old Pyrmont represented in this painting is of a working class inner city Sydney, a jumble of markets, wharves and warehouses. Rust red buildings worn with work, sweat, grime and age suggest the presence of working lives and devoid of people. There is a pulsating force in this painting with an upward heaving of earth and water beneath a bustling highway. There is suggestion of danger and unrest by the frenetic brushwork and the crowded colours of the sky. Up-thrusting waves are depicted as jagged slashes of dirty colour in a scene that is not beautiful, but instead full of emotion. Pyrmont and Beyond conveys a sense of urgent energy and an ominous sense of change in its shifting forms. What we see here through Connor’s eyes is a city that is not restful, but one distressed and edgy.