A former sailors’ haunt has been reimagined by more than 40 creatives for the closing weekend of the Fremantle biennale
Making my way up a creaky, carpeted staircase, I step into what feels like a different world – a building I’ve passed hundreds of times, yet never set foot in. I am standing on the first level of Fremantle’s former P&O hotel, and am immediately taken aback by its weathered, almost cinematic beauty: tall stained glass windows, dark timber mouldings and an iron-framed balcony peering over High Street like some forgotten lookout.
First built about 1870 and renovated during the gold-rush era, for almost a century this building was a magnet for wharfies and crewmen, with its 31 rooms and a raucous sailors’ bar known as the Cockpit. But despite being in the centre of Fremantle’s busiest street, this historical relic has largely remained empty and off limits for decades.
Left: Sculptural artist Abdul Rahman Abdullah’s work, In the name, draws on his childhood when the scarcity of halal meat brought animal slaughter and butchery into his family’s suburban backyard. Right: A chandelier forms part of his work Wednesday’s Child
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