Curio

Old Houses in Wentworth Street, before 1901

Oil painting ML 1435 Presented by the Government of NSW per Hon EW O'Sullivan Transferred from the Art Gallery of NSW

Drying sheets, greyed by the smog from the city

it’s the weekend, but pollution persists.

Trade, money, wealth, reasons why this picture

and this exposure exists.

The stink pipe, the gas light, pointing skywards

things look optimistic.

It’s warm, a waiting day, a Saturday, maybe?

The road comes to an end, in front of the house.

People and nations who lived here before

are not recorded, or what did subsist.

It’s not just that part of Wentworth Street

that no longer exists.

Folk, a language, our relative existence

it’s been painted over, a delist.

Sit back and watch it happen, now and then

it’s an uncomfortable view, telling only part of a story.

- after Old Houses in Wentworth Street, before 1901, Julian Howard Ashton