Casual Arts: Casula

For this next suburb, I mostly spend some time watching a peanut roll on an escalator in Southwest Sydney.

Casula

Casula is a surprisingly large suburb in Southwest Sydney. I had an errand to run here, and so, like my last suburb Canley Vale, I took this as an opportunity to check off a convenient suburb. I kicked things off at this industrial-chic building,

the Casula Powerhouse. 

Here, they have some sort of colourful garden,

whatever a Clay House is (I think there were folks inside working with clay), 

and some pointy wood. 

And heading in, they had an art exhibit. 

Now, like many art exhibitions, here there were many whacky works dealing with a number of serious subjects. Religion, war, sexuality, you know the drill. 

They also had this video of a car doing a burnout, which in a way is a combination of the three aforementioned themes. 

That being said, my favourite piece here by a country mile was Peanut on an Escalator by Tim Andrew (@timandrewart). Inspired by the artist's wonderful experience watching a Twistie roll around a Westfield escalator, this piece is, well, a peanut on an escalator. 

Look. 

Here's a video. 

After watching the peanut spin for many hours, I dragged myself to look at some of the other art pieces here. 

Many were quite interesting. Only one was a peanut on an escalator. 

There was also a section with children's artworks. Naturally, these were not as good as the real art.  

Anyway, after finishing up inside, I took a stroll around the place's grounds. 

They have a pizza oven, 

this statue, 

a bushy bit on the Georges River, 

and these huge siloey things, 

backing onto the station. Grungy. 

Even the station has its share of art outside. 

Incidentally, the other side of the station features the quite large Leacock Regional Park, a reserve with bushland, grassy bits and Glenfield Farm (a heritage listed convict-era homestead). This is one of the many things in Casula that I did not visit, but it does seem worth checking out if you're in the area. 

Other than the area in and around the Powerhouse, you'll be upset to hear that I did not visit too much else. 

Up the road, I saw the Casula Parklands, another large park with picnic areas, 

paths, 

and some top-shelf playgrounds. 

I saw a railway bridge separating this bit of the suburb from its residential half. 

I saw an industrial area being transformed into high density residential, in a story familiar to much of Sydney, 

and I saw the Crossroads, an area in the suburb with box stores where I had to run my errand. It's also home to the Crossroads Hotel, a pub mostly known for giving a bunch of people Covid in 2020. Good times. 

And with that, I continued on with my day with another notch in my suburban belt.

Casula: Judging by this post, an arts centre with an entire suburb attached on the side.