How a neglected mansion was transformed into an art installation

A neglected 1930s mansion in the Dandenong Ranges has a new yet temporary lease of life thanks to street artist Rone.

It’s not the first time the Melbourne-based identity has taken over a dilapidated site all in the name of art, and that’s exactly what he’s done to the heritage-listed Burnham Beeches with his new work Empire, in a property owned by Shannon Bennett’s Vue Group.

Rone, born Tyrone Wright, first stumbled on the location via his friend, chef and entrepreneur Bennett, who introduced him to the idea of using the mansion for an art installation.

Bennett, who is turning the mansion into a new hotel destination, gave the artist the go-ahead to use it as an exhibition space in the interim.

Rone has taken over the 12 empty rooms to create a hybrid art space. Empire riffs on Johnny Cash melancholia, tugs at film-noir moodiness and comes with a narrative where you choose your own adventure. He mixes large-scale paintings with found objects as well as virtual and augmented reality installations.

There’s also a nod to the girl next door in this new work, and she’s trapped in the ghosts of the past while tugging at your senses.

The abandoned building, left vacant for more than 20 years, will come to life for just six weeks and follows in the tradition of Rone’s hugely successful 2017 outing with The Omega Project.

At that time, he turned a condemned home in the leafy suburb of Alphington into a gallery of his art – where bedroom walls and corridors were filled with filmic images he painted, while the dusty home was curated with furnishings that could easily have stepped out of a scene of a Wes Anderson or Sofia Coppola film.

“Shannon Bennett saw The Omega Project and really loved what I had done,” Rone says.

“He actually told me about the mansion a few years ago and suggested I take a look and do something similar to what I did in Alphington.”

It wasn’t until six months after their initial conversation that Rone made the trek to the hills to view the site. That was in February last year. “I was immediately blown away by what I saw and asked myself why hadn’t I pushed myself to go sooner,” he says.

For someone who started out in the graffiti scene, putting his trademark on the laneways of Melbourne in 2001, Rone has become a cult figure in his own right.

He studied graphic design at RMIT and remained there for 12 months before working in design at a skatewear company in the inner city.

Known for his paintings of haunting female faces, Rone’s work is eerily at home on the sides of buildings, in alleyways and has found its way to art galleries around the world including Stolen Places in London, Urban Nation in Berlin and Allouche Gallery in New York.

“When I saw Burnham Beeches from the outside, I had this vision of what it would be like on the inside, but was disappointed when I stepped in to see it was all stripped back and empty,” he recalls.

“But then, I viewed it as the ultimate blank slate to work from. It was mid-construction and they were about to start renovating. What initially began as painting one room became taking over the whole space. It’s turned into this beautiful monster.”

Rone approached Australian actress Lily Sullivan, star of Picnic at Hanging Rock, to be his muse for the project. She was a huge fan of The Omega Project and jumped at the opportunity.

The Melbourne-based actress said collaborating with Rone was unlike anything she’d done before.

“There’s something quite amazing about Rone’s street art. He creates something beautiful within the context of decay and erosion at the mansion,” says Sullivan, who has just finished filming I Met A Girl, a film about an aspiring musician with schizophrenia searching for his missing love interest.

“The idea of creating something that disappears is surreal and I was drawn to that.”

Rone, who approached her via email, explained he wanted to paint her portrait for the house.

“I remember arriving at Burham Beeches in the middle of winter, it was ice cold and raining and only one giant heater in the room,” she says.

“Tyrone and I explored the house together. We went about creating a narrative for each room but, ultimately, it’s the silent ambiguity that speaks the loudest and viewers can interpret this how they want.

“I loved the eerie drama of the mansion and the end result is rather amazing.”

Portraits of Sullivan beam across 12 rooms of the expansive house. She’s larger than life and is at ease with it.

“To see how Rone perceived my face and put it on a wall is unlike anything I have ever done. We took so many photos,” she laughs.

“But in the end, he chose specific facial features and it was wonderful to step back from myself. I found it really interesting to see what he took from the experience.”

Empire is all about creating seasonal shifts as you move from room to room.

There’s more than 500 individual antique pieces curated by interior stylist Carly Spooner.

There’s a sparkling, five-tier chandelier Rone had to figure out how to get to the site, a grand piano and other hard rubbish waste he collected that became roadside treasure.

He also went to liquidation auctions to source tables, chairs and other furnishings while a recession centre in Footscray, packed with stock from failed businesses and selling at a reduced price, also proved fruitful.

It’s been a labour of love for the artist. “My whole career has been based around street art, so the idea that nothing lasts forever is well ingrained,” says Rone.

“This kind of project is another extension of that. I guess it allows people to have an emotional attachment that I too might have to my work, that feeling is also complicated by loss and connection. It’s all part of the process. It’s also what makes authentic street art exciting.

“You have to come and see it today as it might not be there tomorrow. That is why it’s gaining a cult following – people want a contemporary art experience that’s in the moment.”

Empire – an installation by Rone. March 6-April 22, 2019, Burnham Beeches mansion, 1 Sherbrooke Road, Sherbrooke.