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HANOVER HOUSE
ART INSTALLATION
Atong Atem
The city’s Hanover House, part of the future site for STH BNK By Beulah, has been brought to life by Melbourne’s rising star artist Atong Atem, who has been commissioned to animate two facades of the building.
Atem's new artwork Outdoor Living (2021) draws inspiration from her archive of vintage European wallpapers and collected native flowers.
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Concept
Situated in the heart of a dynamic international arts precinct, STH BNK By Beulah will aim to showcase how future expressions of art and culture can enhance and enrich daily life. Atong Atem’s dramatic statement in paint and LED neons is the first creative commission for this future development. Remixing past and present symbols to shape a new vision for Melbourne, the installation will house the temporary BETA By STH BNK program, an experimental event series.
Explore: BETA — What's On >
Dramatic, large-scale illuminated neon flowers overlay a painted wallpaper design across two facades of the 20m building in a vibrant transformation that encapsulates the artist’s vision of Melbourne’s past and future. The signature motifs have been adapted from Atem’s past works, including her photographic Studio Series at NGV Triennial, and new film Banksia, commissioned for this year’s Rising Festival.
Beulah appointed the London-based cultural placemaking and world-class arts commissioning agency Futurecity Ltd to create the temporary artwork to transform the building, with the brief to showcase Beulah’s commitment to sustainability, wellness and technology. Atem’s artwork speaks to these themes through her concept and also the artwork materiality, which incorporates low-VOC and low-energy consumption materials.
ABOUT
Atong Atem, an Ethiopian-born, South Sudanese, Naarm/Melbourne-based artist, says that her work explores her relationship to Melbourne, Australia and beyond when forming the sense of belonging to a place.
“I’m interested in the relationships between people, our connection with the natural and built environments, and how this is interwoven with the visual signs and symbols that define our histories. With the work I have developed for Hanover House, I’m interested in the aesthetics of 1970s Australian homes and have chosen to reference the intimacy of those spaces by creating a wallpaper pattern reminiscent of late 20th-century living room walls”
Merging Art and Technology
3D laser scanning of Hanover House in collaboration with Veris.
Our work with Veris, Australia’s largest national survey and geospatial company, represents the epitome of what BETA is all about, the merging of disciplines in a non traditional sense and a spirit of experimentation with commercial outcomes. Veris partnered with Beulah to provide high resolution digital scanning and modelling of Hanover House to assist with the creation of a major piece of art work for Melbourne by Australian South Sudanese artist Atong Atem. Veris is extremely proud to be involved in a project that redefines the use and performance of a heritage building such as Hanover House.
3D laser scanning was used to survey the façade of Hanover House. The technology was critical as it was rapid in application, it is safe due to the óff-site’ nature of data capture and generates extremely high detail in a point cloud. This is particularly important with historic buildings such as Hanover House where existing building plans don’t exist. The 3-dimensional point cloud captured by survey was used to provide 3-dimensional modelling of the existing building.
The end result was an accurate 3D model of the building façade used as the base to create the incredible artwork we all see today and assist with the installation on site.
Atong Atem, Outdoor Living, 2021
Installation view at Hanover House, Southbank, Melbourne, for BETA By STH BNK
Curated by Futurecity
Commissioned by Beulah
Image courtesy the artist and MARS Gallery, Melbourne
Photography by Beulah
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