Dreadnought Sculpture at Ralph Alexandria
Ralph is a contemporary residential development in ex-industrial Alexandria in Sydney’s inner south. The location includes the former factory site of Dreadnought Valve Ltd makers of valves and fittings used in steam power systems and industrial piping. Di Emme was commissioned to fabricate the aptly named Dreadnought sculpture, an eye-catching artwork in the communal space.
Stencilled patterns of topographic pathways and Indigenous iconography were applied to the surface. The gradient from yellow to deep orange traces the span of a working life, from sunrise to sunset.
The project was curated by Guppy Art Management for Lateral Estate. Marla Guppy and GBA Heritage explored an artistic response to the industrial heritage site. Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay artist, Dennis Golding’s artwork, Dreadnought, captures the culture of Alexandria and its industrial past.
Di Emme managed the complex fabrication. The artwork was sculpted in Di Emme’s Leichhardt studio. Bloodhound FX added the fibreglass and paintwork, and James Lesjak-Atton provided the stencil work. The artwork is suspended from an original gantry retained from the historic valve factory.
The sculpture is suspended from an original gantry retained from the iconic Dreadnought factory.
In his artist’s statement, Dennis Golding describes the looping form drawing on the old city train loop “reimagined as a gesture of journey and return. Suspended from the gantry, it bends and curves against the hard geometry of the structure, softening it, making space within it. The dreadnought valve anchors the form, a remnant of this site's industrial past and a metaphor for memory. What communities carry, what gets passed down, what cannot be let go until it has first been truly held. The surface carries stencilled patterns of topographic pathways and Indigenous iconography. The gradient from yellow to deep orange traces the arc from sunrise to sunset, the full span of a working life.”
It was a successful collaboration with Di Emme producing a number of samples to ensure Golding’s concept would be realised in the final artwork. Di Emme also organised the riggers for the installation of the steel and fibreglass Dreadnought.