I can assure you I was incredibly excited receiving an email from artist Rone in my inbox about his new exhibition TIME.

Rone’s exhibitions are like none you have ever seen and the fact that his current show would be made up of installations within the hidden echelons of Flinders Street Station, well, the excitement levels reached sky-high proportions.

It has been a joy to watch the progress of Rone over the years. From graffiti artist proliferating the streets of Melbourne to something globally renowned and special. His last few works have been nothing short of spectacular and each project improving on the previous tenfold. I don’t think I have missed any of his exhibitions and you will see them photographed throughout this blog as I slowly restore my archives.

I have walked the hallowed halls of Flinders Street Station previously when I attended the art show by Patricia Piccinini during the middle of last year. So I knew what to expect walking through the gorgeous but abandoned inner sanctum of Flinders Street Station. The entire third floor which is a massive span is slowly being made available to the general populace through such art shows as Rone’s and Patricia’s. Lets hope in due course, we’ll get to see more and more events at the jewell of Melbourne – Flinders Street Station.

Time By Rone is a nostalgic love letter to mid-century Melbourne and a tribute to one of the city’s great icons. You’re immediately transported back through time when Melbourne was a simpler place post World War II as she was rejuvenated with the influx of rebirth and migrants seeking refuge and a new life. 

I debated long and hard on whether to shoot today in monochrome or colour, but I felt with the classic and historical nature of this exhibition, that I would challenge myself and see if I could do it justice sans colour. Whether I succeeded or not is not for me to adjudicate but I feel I captured some wonderful moments from this show.

I sit here slightly overwhelmed and positively blown away about the exhibition I just witnessed. It is incredibly immersive and oh so ghostly as it stands like a world forgotten and a place where indeed, time stood still. Frozen moments. Motionless and lifeless artefacts from a time long gone by brought to life by Rone’s incredible murals who look forlorn and with a story to tell themselves.

You do not need these walls to talk, they are conveying enough raw emotion and communicate to you in their own way.

Oh, to spend a night here by yourself. To walk through these rooms and halls and let them sink into the sinews of your mind. To let them meld with you and be at one with you.

Lonely murals in a forgotten world gracing a city that is waking up from the slumber of COVID and all the dreadful solitude that period bestowed upon so many of us.