Libby McColl

You feel like you’re being watched…there’s a hum in the air… a feeling that you shouldn’t be there disturbing this place, the time for the people has gone and you’re unwelcome here now in this place overtaken by nature.

The quiet slow decay shows itself in hidden layers of colours in the peeling paint and rotting wood. New colours show themselves in bright oranges and reds of rust and corrosion and greens and browns of mildew and moss, creating an incredible palette.

This drew me to paint this old Taranaki dairy factory in this body of work. At one stage painted in an incredible turquoise, pipes charge around the buildings, up and down and twisting around leading to nowhere but holding it all together, once very, very important but now useless and somewhat ridiculous!