Nicky Adams
Detail from artist book
Detail from artist book
Nicky is an architect, working predominantly on public and institutional buildings. Her curatorial and exhibited work has been woven in amongst her professional and family life. It includes textiles, photography and drawing. She has curated six group shows dealing with community culture and places of belonging. A book of her line drawings was acquired by the State Library of Victoria as part of its permanent collection in 2005. She has been awarded a commendation for the Smorgan Steel art prize in 2003. Nicky returned to Tasmania this year with her family.
I wanted to make a piece about the places within Queenstown the locals love and know. Places also frequented by tourists. I found this in the interiors of the Empire Hotel and the Imperial Hotel. The Empire is still a hotel, the Imperial now the Galley Museum. They are a short walk apart. Both have memorable and somewhat quirky interiors. If time permits you can walk on another 5 minutes to the only gravel football field in Australia and then pondering how this is possible return back to the Empire’s bar.
There is a sadness to a forgotten town whose recent history you do not know, until you stop and stay.
Entering The Empire Hotel, my accommodation for the night, I found an active vibrant living interior. The wealth and romance of the bygone world captured in the hotel’s grand staircase, a framed picture of Queen Victoria in powder blue hanging above the door to the bar, as though she might always have been there. The formally set dining room with a beveled glass mirrored mantel, flanked by portraits of fox hunting, offered a menu of today. We took the steak sandwich washed down with a beer.
Ascending the ornately carved balustrade adorned with oversized acorns we were greeted at the landing by a youthful portrait of the current Queen Elizabeth. The image somewhat damaged, with parts of her face peeling off, yet still she smiles as we pass by to our twin share. The strong smell of soap and the conversations from the itinerant workers talking in the shower, the shock on the face and apology of another as he passes us to do the same in his underwear, not expecting tourists on a Monday. The friendly staff note casually all roads in and out of Queenstown are closed.
I slow my stride, marvel at the detailed tiles underfoot as I leave the Empire, look back at her grande façade and head for the Galley Museum. The greeting here surpasses my expectation with a skeleton waving from the first floor window. Lost in endless rooms stuffed to over flowing, the museum feels more like a farmer’s clearance sale. It is as though the inhabitants have shaken out their houses and all possessions have landed here. I stop in the room full of telephones their curling lines go nowhere and I am reminded of Queenstown’s remoteness.
Design by Mexico and modified by Linden Langdon
Content and images © copyright by the artists represented on this website 2009