The Warders Hotel Project

Artist’s Statement - Tessa McKay

The Warders Hotel project, designed by Matthew Crawford Architect, comprised of heritage cottages that were built in 1851 as temporary accommodation for the Fremantle Prison warders who came with their wives and children.  

Artist, Tessa MacKay generated 36 original works for the 12 hotel rooms, and directly referenced female domesticity of these historic interior spaces, turning to cyanotype and figurative oil paintings to compliment the buildings’ unique past, which sits at the heart Fremantle’s colonial heritage.

“With early photography unable to capture low-light interiors, there were hardly any 19th century archival photos capturing the kind of in-door female oriented domesticity I wanted to reference. So I drew inspiration from paintings of the era and referenced broader imagery of female pioneers and archival imagery, before staging a photoshoot in collaboration with costume designer, Lisa Galea Gunning and make-up by Karen Sims, who were a wealth of knowledge in this era. Both Lisa and Karen’s attention to detail were instrumental to imbuing the paintings with authenticity.”