The Study (Empire)
Rone (Tyrone Wright)
born Geelong 1980; lives and works in Melbourne
The Study (Empire) 2019
archival pigment print on 310 gsm Canson Baryta; edition 1 of 3
The SANDREW Collection
In recent years Rone has built a reputation for the exceptional transformation of abandoned spaces, into which he constructs rich narratives and evocative sensory experiences. In 2019, Rone’s epically scaled project Empire overtook Burnham Beeches, the grand Art Deco residence in the Dandenong Ranges. With a team of collaborators, he transformed the unoccupied mansion to create an experiential journey through twelve rooms, with transitions and changes to reflect the seasons.
Linking each space was the haunting large-scale portrait of a woman: her identity was unknown, and her link to the building unclear, but her persistent presence in each of the rooms provoked visitors to imagine her personal story—a life lived at the height of the mansion’s heyday.