E.174 Inner suburb 2014

• I. 1st and only state

  Etching and drypoint. A view of a junction of suburban streets, on a hill, with three telegraph poles at the right, and bushy trees receding in the middle distance. At the centre right is the side view of a tall nineteenth-century terrace house, while in the left distance are cylindrical grain silos. To the right of the silos is the ghostly outline of a tall building that has been burnished out. There are five variant impressions of this the only state.

  1. Cleanly wiped impression on cream wove Somerset paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘1-1’; lower centre: ‘Inner Suburb’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R Amor ’14’.
  2. Impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘AP I/III’; lower centre: ‘Inner Suburb’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R Amor ’14’.
  3. Impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘AP II/III’; lower centre: ‘Inner Suburb’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R Amor ’14’.
  4. Impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘AP III/III’; lower centre: ‘Inner Suburb’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R Amor ’’14’.
  5. Hors commerce impression on wove paper, printed by Rick Amor in his Alphington studio. Inscribed in pencil, below the plate mark: lower left: ‘H-C’; lower centre: ‘Inner Suburb’; lower right: signed and dated ‘R Amor ’14’.

• I.d. 1st and only state (Featured Image)

  

  Etching and drypoint. A view of a junction of suburban streets, on a hill, with three telegraph poles at the right, and bushy trees receding in the middle distance. At the centre right is the side view of a tall nineteenth-century terrace house, while in the left distance are cylindrical grain silos. To the right of the silos is the ghostly outline of a tall building that has been burnished out. There are five variant impressions of this the only state.

• No edition

• Comment

  This etching depicts a view from the corner of Queensberry Street and Munster Terrace, North Melbourne, and is based on a painting done on the spot in 2014.

  North Melbourne is largely a nineteenth-century inner suburb, which combines industrial and residential areas; since the 1980s it has been undergoing gentrification. Amor has painted in the area for many years, having been drawn to those parts in which industry and homes conspicuously overlap.

  A prominent building on Munster Terrace is Weston Milling’s tall flour mill – once called Love’s Mill – which was originally included in this etching, but which Amor burnished away so as to create a scene of greater bleakness. The ghostly remains of the building are still present at the centre left of the image.