Powerhouse Museum Is Reopening on October 11 with Five New Eye-Catching Exhibitions
The Ultimo venue will be showcasing everything from party photographs and electric keyboards to art about the relationship between eucalypts and Indigenous Australians.
Throwing open the doors after spending almost four months in lockdown is a rather huge deal, both for Sydneysiders keen to venture out of the house for whatever reason they like and for venues eager to welcome patrons back in. So, Ultimo's Powerhouse Museum is marking the occasion in a big way — by launching five new exhibitions.
Back in February, when the site announced its plans for 2021, it unveiled a list of exhibitions to fill its walls and halls for the entire year. Of course, the pandemic changed that. Now, when it reopens on Monday, October 11 in line with New South Wales' roadmap out of stay-at-home conditions, it'll unleash everything from party photographs and electric keyboards to art about eucalypts and stunning design work.
Thanks to an exhibition called Eucalyptusdom, the venue will explore stories surrounding gum trees, including their importance to Indigenous Australians. Expect to see pieces from Powerhouse's collection across a lineup of more than 400 items, as well as new works by Dean Cross, Luna Mrozik Gawler, Julie Gough, Vera Hong, Anna May Kirk, Nicholas Mangan, Yasmin Smith, Sera Waters and Damien Wright with Bonhula Yunupingu.
Zandra Rhodes, Autumn / Winter 1981-82, London. ©Robert Rosen
Australian portrait and social pages photographer Robert Rosen is also in the spotlight, all thanks to Glitterati: 20 years of Social Photography. This showcase hones in on Rosen's vivid snaps, covering more than 300 images, including from his early career in London and Paris. Here, famous faces will grace Powerhouse's walls, spanning the likes of Paul McCartney, Elle McPherson, Divine, Nina Simone, Yves Saint Laurent and Andy Warhol, plus Grace Jones, Kylie Minogue, Nicole Kidman, Luciano Pavarotti, Elton John and Michael Hutchence.
With Electric Keys, the venue will also contemplate the influence of electric keyboards on soul jazz, blues, rock, progressive rock and pop. Twenty keyboards will be on display, dating back to mechanical instruments from the 17th century — including a Virginal plucked string keyboard with a compass of four octaves that was made in Italy in 1629, aka the Powerhouse's oldest instrument. A 1974 electric piano 'Wurlitzer 200A', as heard in Queen track 'You're My Best Friend' also features, as does a 1982 Roland SH-101 monophonic synthesizer that produced the baseline in Eurythmics' 'Sweet Dreams'.
Powerhouse is also highlighting 20th-century designers in an exhibition called Graphic Identities, focusing on the likes of Douglas Annand, Frances Burke, Gordon Andrews, Arthur Leydin, Dahl Collings, Shirley de Vocht and more.
And, in Clay Dynasty, over 400 pieces from the Powerhouse collection will be on display, highlighting different ways of working with the medium across 50 years of Australian studio ceramics — including works from 160 Aussie artists.
View of Electric Keys showing keyboard instruments from the collection. A Hammond B3organ from 1955 is in the foreground and the oldest keyboard instrument in the country, a Virginal from 1629, can be seen on the right. Photographed by Zan Wimberley.
That's what's launching now, but more is in store across the rest of the year. Come December, the Five Hundred Arhats exhibition will showcase a selection of the 300 statues found in the ruins of Changnyeongsa Temple in Yeongwol in Gangwon-do Province, South Korea, back in 2001. The stone sculptures are thought to date back 500 years, and depict arhats, aka followers of Buddha who've achieved the enlightened state of nirvana.
And, Powerhouse still has a number of other delayed exhibitions in the works as well. They include The Invisible Revealed, which'll let visitors see nuclear-beam scans of objects from Powerhouse's collection; Microcars, focusing on more than 17 tiny automobiles from Europe, Japan, the UK and Australia; and the climate change-centric 100 Conversations, spanning an exhibition and talks program.
Powerhouse Museum reopens on Monday, October 11 at 500 Harris Street, Ultimo. For further details, visit the venue's website.
Top image: View of Eucalyptusdom showing commissioned work Pyriscence: After Fireby Anna May Kirk. Photographed by Zan Wimberley.
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