R a i j i n ...

Tucked away in its own little corner of Cockatoo Island was an artwork by Hiroshi Sugimoto. Sugimoto is a brilliant artist from Japan, who is held in such high esteem that he was allowed a few sneaky privileges; one being that he could exhibit his work inside the islands powerstation that is situated away from many of the other structures and buildings on Cockatoo. As such many people missed the amazing spectacle which was Sugimoto's installation called Faraday Cage 2010, and the wonder of seeing inside this amazing powerstation, which at any other time of the year is completely off limits to the public.

I was lucky enough to get a tip off about this work and where to find it, and boy, was it worth searching out!!! The image above gives you some indication of the shear magnitude of the power and sheer size of this installation that was all about Raijin, the Japanese God of Thunder...
Purely apt for the place where it was situated...

I was in heaven in this space...
As you may have gleaned from earlier posts, I absolutely love rusty old mechanical parts, the smell of oil in the air and surfaces that are old and worn, with paint chipped off. It reminds me of my childhood and my Grandfather who was a farmer and a mechanic...I used to love going into his shed and picking up all the old parts off old clocks, the rusted tools and any other odds and sods that were lying around the benches...
So while loving the installation and all the lights and power....
I took MANY shots of the powerstation itself!


The white paint.... the dials above it... love love love....

My old pop and his shed...!!

One of my favourite shots of the day....

The sheer magnitude of all the equipment was brilliant.... It still is a fully functioning power station so everything was still buzzing, moving, flashing....

The light....from outside and within...

Like being in 'Thunders Dwelling'....

Just wanted to show you the light that was being produced....! Above is a crane and below is a 13th c. Japanese statue of Raijin with an image of a thunderbolt by Sugimoto...

The mechanical parts...the colour...the rust....the history....

The island! This is from outside the powerstation...on the wet, windy and cold day that I visited. Looking at this shot brings a tear to my eye, as I was so cold and wet that day! Not my favourite weather but well worth it...