RONE:
THE WORKROOM
NOW ON DISPLAY FOR FREE AT
THE OUTSIDERS MELBOURNE
The idea to make this room at Flinders street was actually as a homage to the early Melbourne garment district situated in Flinders Lane.
Flinders lane garment factories were thriving post WW2 and into the 50s & 60s. There is a very strong Jewish link to the area as many of the owners and workers had settled in Melbourne from Poland and Russia. The jewish women working in the factories were often referred to as Schmatte. - you can read more about the cultural significance of the area here.
Carly Spooner (set dresser) and Tyrone first make a plan of what the room is going to look like and construct a mood board of the type of items they are going to need to create the room, depending on the item, it is either sourced vintage from various op-shops, facebook marketplace, gumtree and the like. If it's something that is going to be harder to source or we need multiples (like the typing pool desks) then we go about making them in the workshop and then using scenic skills will paint them to look older and more vintage.
The model for the mural in The Workroom is a woman called Teresa Oman. Rone has worked with Teresa for over a decade and she has become a key person in the Rone Team, as a really rewarding artistic relationship with one and his family over this time. Teresa has sat for key exhibitions throughout this time including Omega and Rone in Geelong. Currently based in Europe, Teresa grew up in Australia and is of Maori and German descent.
In addition to being an immensely successful model in her own right, Teresa has a very expressive face and manages to convey the mood or messaging to suit the artwork effortlessly.
The cobwebs are definitely not real! They are made using a hot glue gun and an air compressor to create the fine strands which fall naturally over the items. The cobwebs are then dusted to remove the shine an make them look real.
The music was composed by Nick Batterham for the TIME exhibition. The Workroom music has been isolated for this installation. You can find his compositions online at streaming sites - TIME was his third collaboration with Rone
Rone started doing stencil artwork in skate parks in the early 2000's. Gradually his interest in street art overtook his love of skateboarding and he began spending his spare time working on stencils destined for the street.
In 2004 Rone and his friends founded Everfresh Studio, a space where they collectively worked on pieces intended for the street. Over time most of the Everfresh Artists transitioned into showing their work in gallery settings, Rone's first solo show was at Backwoods Gallery in Collingwood in 2011.
He continued exhibiting in whitewall galleries for the next few years until 2016 when he opened 'Empty' in a found space in Fitzroy. This exhibition saw him pivot from tradition canvas works to include a selection of photographic works he took of his portraits in abandoned spaces.
In 2017, Rone opened an exhibition called 'Omega', his first fully immersive exhibition which took place in an abandoned house in Melbourne. This is where he first started to work with set dresser Carly Spooner. They worked together to create a space that contained all the nuances of a Melbourne workers cottage, sitting unoccupied for years.
The success of this project led to the creation of Empire in 2019, a dilapidated art deco mansion in the Dandenong Ranges, brought back to life. TIME, at Flinders St Station was created off site in secrecy over 2020-2022 during Melbourne's relentless covid era and opened to the public in October 2022.
TIME also realised the goal of being able to reinterpret installations for new spaces.
Rone successfully installed TIME into the Centenary Gallery at AGWA in Perth for a 6 month season.
Born in Geelong, Rone and his family now reside in Melbourne.
