Bathrooms

Provenance

Camera
NIKON D850
Lens
14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Settings
14mm · f/8.0 · 2s · ISO 400
Paper
Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

Within Female Ward 9 & 10, institutional bathrooms remain. Peeling paint covers walls where tiles once clung. Rust stains basins, and the air hangs heavy in this silent, forgotten space.

Edition
Open edition

Open edition
Printed to order, no fixed quantity. Each print is hand-signed by the photographer.

Limited edition
A fixed number of prints exist. Once sold, the edition closes permanently. Each print is individually numbered and signed.

$100.00 AUD
Size
Type
Colour
Signed, numbered, with COA. Made to order in 10 to 20 business days (framed). Shipped in protective packaging with edition certificate, paper-stock reference and a printed care guide.
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In situ

Bathrooms at Female Ward 9 & 10, paint peels from every surface.Bathrooms at Female Ward 9 & 10, paint peels from every surface.Bathrooms at Female Ward 9 & 10, paint peels from every surface.Bathrooms at Female Ward 9 & 10, paint peels from every surface.Bathrooms at Female Ward 9 & 10, paint peels from every surface.
01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title
Bathrooms
Series
Female Ward 9 and 10
Catalogue
FWA-010
Process
Giclée
Captured
1 March 2019
Camera
NIKON D850
Lens
14.0-24.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture
f/8.0
Shutter
2s s
ISO
400
Focal length
14 mm
Paper
Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm
Paper size
290 × 200 mm
Location
Rozelle, New South Wales, Australia
Recognised by
National Trust of Australia (NSW), 2016 Heritage Award, Multimedia
02 LOCATION

Rozelle, New South Wales, Australia

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

Paint peels from every surface. Ceiling, walls, floor. Sheets of it curling and falling, scattered across bare concrete like dry leaves. Two doorways open into adjacent rooms. A wall-mounted cabinet hangs open, its pink and pale blue panels still holding colour against the grey. White ceramic tiles line a low alcove between the doors. Sunlight enters from unseen windows in the adjoining spaces, throwing long bars of light across the debris.

Brett Patman

Female Ward 9 and 10

The series

Female Ward 9 and 10

2018 · 27 photographs

Female Wards 9 and 10 sit within the Kirkbride Complex at Callan Park in Lilyfield, on the Parramatta River. The Kirkbride was designed in 1877 by Colonial Architect James Barnet in collaboration with Frederick Norton Manning, the NSW Inspector of the Insane, applying the American physician Dr Thomas Kirkbride's principles of moral therapy. Charles Moore, Director of the Sydney Botanic Gardens, designed the surrounding landscape. The complex - twenty-some sandstone neo-classical buildings with timber floors, slate roofs and copper downpipes, mostly quarried on site - was completed in 1885 and arranged symmetrically: five female wards at one end, five male wards at the other, separated by administrative buildings in the centre. The first female patients arrived from Gladesville Hospital on 19 December 1884 - twelve women in the first transfer. By June 1885 the asylum held 110 women and 303 men. Through the early 20th century many of the women confined here were not suffering from severe mental illness but conditions like postnatal depression, grief, anxiety, or social nonconformity that the medicine of the time pathologised. Callan Park closed in 2008. The Kirkbride Conservation Area is on the NSW State Heritage Register (#00818, gazetted 2 April 1999), protected under the Callan Park (Special Provisions) Act 2002. The 2020 Kirkbride CMP, prepared by GML Heritage and Tanner & Associates for Property NSW, is the gold-standard reference. The wards remain largely intact today.

View all in this series →

05 SIZE GUIDE

Print sizes

The anatomy view shows what this finish is as a physical object: paper margin, mat band, frame depth, acrylic profile. The comparison strip shows how each size sits relative to the others at true scale. Click a size or a finish to update both.

Anatomy · true ratio
TypeSizeWidthHeight
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