Courtesy Rone

An ‘Empire’ in an Abandoned Australian Mansion

Tucked in the foothills of the Dandenong Mountain Ranges—the lower mountains in Melbourne, Australia—a crumbling, forgotten mansion is the site of an elaborate, yet secluded art exhibit. As bushes and weeds climb through the aging wooden floors, dust powders every surface, and the wind forces leaves through the broken windows, intricate paintings of beautiful women adorn the walls and libraries of each room. This work, entitled “The Music Room,” is part of a larger exhibit, “Empire,” that occupies the many rooms of the mansion. The artist, Rone, designed the exhibit with the intention of enabling explorers of the abandoned mansion to forge their own meanings and experiences from the paintings. Yet, in discovering the remnants of life that still litter the mansion—the decaying piano, the scattered sheet music, a wine bottle still upright on the ground—viewers are bound to feel a common sense of evanescence; the exhibit exudes the fleetingness of possessions, the fleetingness of art, and the fleetingness of life. These exhibits are nearly as eerie as the artwork in these haunting and beautiful abandoned churches.