MAXWELLTOWN MIRROR PALACE
2.4 x 1.7m
Oil on wallpaper stripped from the flats in Maxwelltown Tower. Pasted onto board.

Wallpaper gathered from throughout the Hilltown Multis and Ann St. Squares forms a background for which a building's interior is painted upon. The firm geometric lines of Modernist architecture cut across the organic ornament of once homely wall-coverings. The image is an adaption of the open spaces situated on the ground floors of each Tower but here forms a depth apparently more open, like that of a grand hall in height, jarring against the familiar scale of the wallpaper.
The title refers to something in the work reminiscent to that of a 'Shish Mahal' (literally meaning 'Hall of Mirrors' or 'Mirror Palace') of the Mhugal Empire's era seen in great Palaces throughout the Indian Subcontinent such as the Taj Mahal, Amer Fort and Lahore Fort. These buildings, although utterly opposite in function, share a certain romanticisation from the past that seemed to fall upon the Hilltown Multis leading up to and after the demolition. This romantic notion however, stems from conservation for one, and destruction for the other.
The work hangs opposite the demolition site of Maxwelltown Tower.

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