4 December 2021 – 20 March 2022
Walking Tour: Saturday 22 January, 4–5pm
David Wadelton
From noxious trades to boutique bars – a Northcote pictorial 1980–2021
series of annotated photographs printed on vinyl presented in shopfronts on High Street from Northcote to Thornbury, dimensions variable
Courtesy the artist and M.33, Melbourne
From noxious trades to boutique bars – a Northcote pictorial 2021
artist’s book: 34 pages
Design: David Wadelton and Matt Hinkley
ISBN: 978-0-6484353-8-9
Published by Australian Centre for Contemporary Art
Courtesy the artist and M.33, Melbourne
Offsite (multiple locations in Northcote)
Gray & Gray
188 High Street
Northcote Theatre
216–218 High Street
M.A. Sedawie & Co
567 High Street
Northcote VIC 3070
David Wadelton has been photographing the Melbourne suburb of Northcote and environs since the 1970s, the record of which is collected in various anthologies and publications, and on the Facebook page Northcote Hysterical Society. Wadelton began systematically photographing the inner-northern neighbourhood in 2008, which, as the artist notes, ‘coincided with the 2000s inner-city apartment boom, when demolition and demographic change were accelerating.’ His photographs present a compelling account of contemporary life and the urban condition in inner-city Melbourne – preserving the past whilst simultaneously registering the transformation and gentrification that has occurred over the past decades, as a result of changing demographics and patterns of migration, technological and industrial change, the flight of industry and the arrival of information and service economies which characterise the post-Fordist economic era. Collected in publications including the recent Small Business, (M.33 Books, Melbourne, 2021), Wadelton’s photographs speak volumes about the social and urban history and transformation of inner-suburban Melbourne, its architectural heritage, changing styles and social mores, personalities and protagonists.
From noxious trades to boutique bars – a Northcote pictorial is a new selection of sixty photographs taken over the past decade or so which capture local, quotidian histories captured by the artist on his daily walks. Taking the form of urban archaeology, the photographs represent light industry and small business, shopping and leisure centres, advertising and signage, architectural edifices and interior décor, and personalities and characters that are rapidly disappearing from the inner northern suburb. They are accompanied by textual annotations which add further evidence of urban transformation and the impacts of globalisation, development, community activism and generational change. For Who’s Afraid of Public Space?, the works are presented in a selection of shop windows along High Street, from Northcote to Thornbury, leading viewers on a psychogeographic itinerary through public space and the passage of time. Wadelton has also produced an eponymous artist’s book which collects these conceptual, serial, documentary images as a memorial compendium of urban fragments, remnants and narratives from another time.
An extract of this project will also be presented at ACCA, in the Project Space: The Hoarding over the duration of the exhibition.
Access:
Tram and train are in close proximity on High St and via the Mernda line. The nearest public toilets are located after the intersection of High and Westgarth St. Both paid and free street parking available on and around High St. Please contact ACCA if you have any further queries about access and this event 03 9697 9999 or info@acca.melbourne