The Offering was a contemporary art intervention created by Robbie Rowlands in a single story weatherboard church and community hall in Dandenong, Victoria, Australia. The Church was officially opened in August 1904. In this same month, August 2009 – 105 years later – Rowlands’ arts intervention took place.
The artwork was produced using only the materials contained within its walls to create a visually powerful site specific installation. The Offering revealed the history of the site through exposed layers and sculptural forms that peeled and bent the inner surfaces of the building. Refusing the temptations of aestheticism or overt symbolism, Rowlands staged a complex mediation between the ageing structure and its former identity as a spiritual or communal anchor. The result was a profound encounter between the current state of the building and traces of its past, as well as a complex interrogation of the building’s interior spaces and materials.
Robbie Rowlands is a Melbourne based artist whose work explores notions of stability and vulnerability through the manipulation of objects and environments. His repetitious and precise cuts and the resulting distortions reflect the inescapable passing of time that affects everything around us. Rowlands’ works have been described as spotlighting the history, humanity and function of his subjects. His manipulated objects and spaces blur the boundaries between our fabricated world and the natural world.
Rowlands graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 1999. He has shown nationally and internationally in solo and group shows which include FOUND at Pratt Institute NY, Structure Space and Place in Kangaroo ground, Depot at the decommissioned Grenda’s Bus Depot in Dandenong, Anthology of Art at Gropius Bua, Berlin, Critical Fixtures, RMIT Storey Hall and features in the renowned Space Craft II book published by Gestalten publishing house, Berlin.
Artist Website – www.robbierowlands.com.au
The Church of Christ was constructed in 1904 and opened on 28 August after an 11 week construction period undertaken by builder David Brown for the cost of 500 pounds.
In early 1918 through voluntary labor the Sunday School was added to the rear of the church at a cost of 140 pounds. Further working bees resulted in the lining of the hall and construction of the kitchen.
The congregation met there until September 1957 when it moved into a newly built brick chapel on the corner of Mason and Walker Streets. The church was occupied by the Assembly of God until 1977 when it was sold to the United Pentecostal Fellowship. It later became occupied by the Church of the Word.
In October 2000, the spiritual movement Sant Nirankari Mandal Melbourne Inc, Universal Brotherhood, purchased the church and hall. Regular weekly congregations were initiated in November 2000, until Sant Nirankari Mission officially inaugurated the Church and held its congregation in April 2001.
For nine years until January 2009, Sant Nirankari Mission conducted regular congregations and community services such as free community meals, language classes, access to Mission’s library materials, regular blood donations and registration for organ donation. Devinder Kumar Tuli, Minister of Religion (Parcharak) live-in pastor and caretaker of the property undertook many repairs and improvements to the buildings with support and guidance of Indar Jit, Chief (Parmukh) of Melbourne Mission along with Sunny Duggal Volunteer’s Incharge.
The church and hall was also a first home for students coming from overseas (mostly India and Nepal) to study in Australia. Some 150 students came to the church and stayed there for short periods prior to their settlement in Victoria.
In 2009 the Church and Hall was acquired by VicUrban to enable the Revitalisation of Central Dandenong. Sant Nirankari Mission relocated 1377 Stud Road, Rowville where their congregations and community activities continue.
