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UNLOCKEDTHE SYDNEY LIVING MUSEUMS GAZETTEAutumn 2021UNLOCKED AUTUMN 2021, NO 29 ISSN 2203-4684 Sydney Living Museums The Mint, 10 Macquarie Street Sydney NSW 2000 T 02 8239 2288 F 02 8239 2299 Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm info@slm.com.au slm.com.au Acknowledgment of Country Our museums and places are on Aboriginal land. We acknowledge the First Nations peoples, the traditional custodians, and we pay respect to the Elders, past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We understand and appreciate that Aboriginal peoples have deep and continuing cultural attachment to Country and are the rightful interpreters of their history and heritage. In this spirit, Sydney Living Museums values the diversity of Aboriginal connections to the places and landscapes we care for and is informed by the Aboriginal cultural heritage and identity that underpin SLM’s museums and places. We acknowledge the continuing impact these sites have on Aboriginal Country. This recognition guides the ways in which we create contemporary conversations and experiences at each of our sites. Unlocked is the quarterly magazine of the Historic Houses Trust of NSW, incorporating Sydney Living Museums, which cares for significant historic places, buildings, landscapes and collections in NSW. The Historic Houses Trust of NSW is a statutory authority of, and principally funded by, the NSW Government. All information is correct at time of printing. Feedback and comments can be sent to info@slm.com.au © 2021 Sydney Living Museums Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. Contents 3 From the Executive Director 4 In brief 6 An acquisitions renaissance 9 Q&A with Tess Allas 10 Creating spaces for our stories 12 (Re)making a home 19 Dr Lisa Cooper: a creative partnership 22 A herculean task: clearing the woolshed 28 Staff profile 30 Learning during lockdown 31 The legacy of Stewart Symonds 32 Donor Q&A 33 Growing the collection 34 Your key to what’s on Cover image Uncle Fred with native plants. Photo © James Horan for Sydney Living Museums; Back cover: Healing land, remembering Country (detail), Tony Albert, 2020, at Elizabeth Farm (see page 10). Photo © Joshua Morris for Sydney Living MuseumsFrom the Executive Director Adam Lindsay The theme ‘Reflections on identity’ is our creative direction for 2021. This issue is a snapshot of how the team at Sydney Living Museums are exploring notions of identity. As I muse on this topic, I suppose identity is about layers. Consider this magazine as an example. Unlocked is a big part of our identity. It showcases what’s on at our museums, gives our valued members insights into what we do, and exposes, in a way that makes us proud, our work. Then there’s the work itself. Take bringing the extraordinary artwork Narcissus Garden (1966/2002), by Yayoi Kusama, to three of our properties. Well, there are layers here too: there’s the work of negotiating and organising the logistics of the loan (from our friends at Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art), and installing it in our museums in a way that’s true to the intention of the artwork and, importantly, conveys powerful messages about individual and collective identity in places significant to our history; there’s the role of our front-of-house staff in interpreting the work to visitors; and there’s the impact that this presentation and provocation has on how people see themselves and the people who have come before them and their place in history. Extrapolate this across all our work – such as discovering how former residents lived in our houses, and meticulously documenting generations of identities expressed through objects (as discussed on pages 22–27) – and you get a peek at an even deeper layer of SLM’s identity. That deeper layer is our team, who are remarkable (and I say this in an objective, unbiased way). This issue expresses much of their professional identity and their achievements during a pandemic, when their identities as people shone very brightly. Ours is a vocational workplace and the passion of this team is palpable, but it’s you, our members, along with our broader audiences, who inspire us most of all. Here I pause to acknowledge the passing of two important donors, Dr Stewart Symonds and Ms Jenni Whitford, both of whom made significant contributions to our collections. Finally, make sure you see Paradise on Earth at the Museum of Sydney before the exhibition closes, experience Fiona Hall’s monumental commission at the Hyde Park Barracks from April, attend the Eel Festival, and get your chocolate fix at the Egg-cellent Easter Trail. Adam Lindsay. Photo © James Horan for Sydney Living Museums Adam Lindsay. Photo © James Horan for Sydney Living Museums 3FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTORReflections through art Two remarkable art installations will transform some of Sydney Living Museums’ most iconic spaces in 2021. Each will bring new ways of seeing and experiencing these special places, from Vaucluse House to the Hyde Park Barracks and the Museum of Sydney. In Narcissus Garden by Yayoi Kusama, one of the most significant artists of the 20th century, mirrored balls reflect each other and their onlookers, creating an infinitely recurring web in which the surrounding visible world is trapped and perpetuated. This work will first launch at the Museum of Sydney in late February, before taking over the drawing room and fountain at Vaucluse House, and finally the library at Elizabeth Bay House. This is a rare opportunity to see Narcissus Garden – a timeless work that has been seen in many different spaces around the world since 1966 – in historic, colonial interiors. Who goes here? by Fiona Hall, one of Australia’s pre-eminent contemporary artists, will launch at the Hyde Park Barracks in April. Following Wiradjuri/ Kamilaroi artist Jonathan Jones’s acclaimed 2020 installation untitled (maraong manaóuwi), the new commission will again activate the courtyard of this UNESCO World Heritage-listed site. Who goes here? is inspired by the stories and identities of people who lived and worked at the Barracks between 1819 and 1887: convicts, immigrants and asylum inmates and the officials who controlled their lives. A fascinating selection of these people will be represented by a series of painted wooden signposts, each a totem for an individual, the distance they travelled from ‘home’, and their story, which anchors them to this place. SLM is honoured to present these major works by two much-admired living artists as part of our ‘Reflections on identity’ theme for 2021. Both installations prompt reflections on how history and place shape our sense of belonging and identity, who makes up that history and how we as individuals reflect on that past today. Narcissus Garden (detail), Yayoi Kusama, 1966/2002. Gift of the artist through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation 2002. Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art. © Yayoi Kusama. Photo Natasha Harth, QAGOMA VIEW Narcissus Garden is on display at the Museum of Sydney until 18 April; at Vaucluse House from 24 April to 23 May; and for members only at Elizabeth Bay House from late May. Go to slm.is/narcissusgarden Who goes here? is on display in the Hyde Park Barracks courtyard from 3 April to 30 May. Go to slm.is/who-goes-here Narcissus Garden has been generously loaned by Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art. Who goes here? is presented with the support of the Neilson Foundation. Who goes here? is generously supported by City of Sydney. 4AUTUMN 2021Culture after dark Since January, SLM has joined Sydney’s other major cultural institutions in opening our doors after hours to entice people back into the city, as part of the NSW Government’s Culture Up Late initiative. On Thursday evenings until the end of March, visitors can explore the Museum of Sydney, the Justice & Police Museum and the Hyde Park Barracks with half-price entry (members receive free entry). In February, as part of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras 2021, we also launched After Dark at the Hyde Park Barracks. This ticketed event will run monthly on a Thursday night until November 2021 (replacing Culture Up Late on 11 March), transforming the Hyde Park Barracks with performances and engaging panel discussions. The March event will see SLM partner with Art Month Sydney in a celebration of contemporary art and artists. The night will include a musical line-up curated by FBi Radio, food by OzHarvest and a pop-up bar by Archie Rose. Culture Up Late is supported by the NSW Government. After Dark at the Hyde Park Barracks is generously supported by City of Sydney. From top Justice & Police Museum. Photo © James Horan for Sydney Living Museums; Penelope Seidler am and visitors at Rose Seidler House. Photos Janson Hews © Sydney Living Museums 70 years of Rose Seidler House On Saturday 5 December, SLM and Penelope Seidler am celebrated the 70th anniversary of Rose Seidler House by welcoming donors and members to two exclusive tours of the property. The house, set in leafy surrounds on the edge of Ku-ring-gai Chase in Sydney’s north, was designed by a young Harry Seidler ac obe for his parents, Max and Rose. Completed in 1950, it was then the ‘most talked about house in Sydney’ for its striking modernist design, and won the Sir John Sulman Medal for architecture in 1951. As she led tours of the property built by her late husband, Penelope graciously shared insights into the award-winning house and its collection of modernist furniture, as well as thoughts on her husband’s extraordinary legacy. SLM is honoured to be the custodian of such an important mid-century property and its culturally significant contents. To commemorate this anniversary, contemporary artist Christopher Zanko has been commissioned to create a ‘portrait’ of the house (see page 7). With their strong colour palette, Zanko’s artworks are bold and daring, much as Rose Seidler House was at the time of its completion. We look forward to sharing this commission with you. VISIT Culture Up Late Museum of Sydney and Justice & Police Museum, every Thursday in March, 5pm–8pm Hyde Park Barracks, 4, 18 & 25 March, 5pm–9pm After Dark at the Hyde Park Barracks Monthly until November, 5pm–9pm For tickets, go to slm.is/barracksafterdark 5IN BRIEFIn 2020–21, Sydney Living Museums has experienced something of a renaissance in our acquisition of contemporary art. This has been driven by the opportunity to acquire some exciting artworks, and the engagement of a specialist curator of Indigenous art. Historians and curators are constantly interpreting and reinterpreting primary source material such as archival records, oral histories, objects, artefacts, heritage sites and buildings. Contemporary artists do the same; however, creativity and the imagination are their tools of trade. Contemporary art in all its wonderfully diverse forms can provide a powerful medium to interpret places, events and people, and to carry these insights to audiences near, far and in the virtual realm. This combination of elements is perfectly suited to the work of SLM. Reframing histories A recent acquisition is the work with whom I was united by every tie (Captain Moonlite) by Sydney-based artist Todd Fuller. This hand-drawn animation engages with the story of bushranger ‘Captain Moonlite’, An acquisitions renaissance Dr Penny Stannard, Head of Curatorial 6AUTUMN 2021 Left and above Transubstantiation, Danie Mellor, photographic print on aluminium panel, 2019, image Danie Mellor. Sydney Living Museums. © Danie Mellor; with whom I was united by every tie (Captain Moonlite), Todd Fuller, 2018, animation still. Sydney Living Museums. © Todd Fuller aka Andrew George Scott (c1842–1880), through the lens of Australian queer histories. Fuller drew inspiration from a letter held in the NSW State Archives Collection that Moonlite wrote concerning fellow gang member James ‘Jim’ Nesbitt while awaiting execution: ‘My dying wish is to be buried beside my beloved James Nesbitt, the man with whom I was united by every tie which could bind human friendship, we were one in hopes, in heart and soul and this unity lasted until he died in my arms …’ 1 The animation is an important addition to the collection of Moonlite-related material held at the Justice & Police Museum, including the pistol used during his final shootout with police and a death mask made after his execution at Darlinghurst Gaol in 1880. Another acquisition is Transubstantiation by Danie Mellor, an artist whose practice explores his connection to place through Aboriginal heritage. Mellor was commissioned by NSW State Archives to create an artwork for the Marriage: Love and Law exhibition (2019), and he developed Transubstantiation by engaging with a set of Colonial Secretary records from the State Archives Collection about a ‘marriage portions’ scheme introduced by Governor Ralph Darling. This ran from 1828 to 1831 and granted land to women from the ‘respectable’ classes who were promised in marriage. Mellor’s work speaks to how the ‘side effect of an apparently well-intended initiative was the displacement of Aboriginal people’. 2 Transubstantiation has been generously donated by Mellor to SLM – a significant gift which we’re truly grateful for. Christopher Zanko, an early career artist from the Wollongong area, was commissioned by SLM in December 2020 to create an acquisitive work for the 70th anniversary of Rose Seidler House (see page 5). The Rose Seidler House is an extension of Zanko’s interest in and depictions of mid-20th-century houses and their once ubiquitous but gradually disappearing presence in Australia’s towns and suburbs. Importantly, it documents one of SLM’s most popular properties through a lens that isn’t only conceptually contemporaneous but also situates the subject within a broader study of suburban Australian architecture. Also acquired in 2020 was Gordon Syron’s Invasion III, joining two other paintings in the Invasion series that have been on display at the Museum of Sydney for some time. The three works combine to channel Syron’s anger at the idea of terra nullius (land belonging to no-one) – a concept that’s proven false by his depictions of Aboriginal people and Mimi spirits watching from the shore as the invaders arrive. 7AN ACQUISITIONS RENAISSANCECuratorial directions As well as the Mellor and Syron works, SLM acquired Truism Australia by Blak Douglas for the Museum of Sydney collection (see Unlocked, Spring 2020). The opportunity to acquire works by these three leading Indigenous artists in 2020 was not to be missed. However, SLM also recognised the need to develop a longer term, phased and multi-pronged approach to the acquisition of contemporary Indigenous art. To this end, SLM has engaged independent curator Tess Allas to develop a five-year Indigenous contemporary art acquisition strategy for the Museum of Sydney, which is on Gadigal land. Allas, who has worked in the Indigenous cultural arena for close to three decades, is the author of numerous publications and has curated groundbreaking exhibitions, including With Secrecy and Despatch (Campbelltown Arts Centre, 2016), and shows across Sydney, Wollongong and transnational jurisdictions (see our Q&A with Allas on the facing page). Recently, Allas facilitated a coup for SLM: securing a landmark work by Dennis Golding, winner of the 2020 NSW Visual Arts Emerging Fellowship. Golding is the first Aboriginal artist to receive the award in its more than 100-year history. As a university student, Golding was mentored by Allas. With the critical acclaim and accolades coming in fast, Golding and Allas speak warmly of their changed relationship. He’s no longer her student; she’s no longer his mentor: they’re friends, equals and peers. Later this year, SLM will combine these and other recent acquisitions at the Museum of Sydney in a specially curated exhibition. Stay up to date with the museum’s exhibitions at slm.is/whats-on-mos 1 Extract of a letter written by Andrew George Scott, 20 January 1880, NSW State Archives Collection, Colonial Secretary Special Bundles, NRS 906 4-825/2. 2 Danie Mellor, quoted in Penny Stannard, Marriage: Love and Law, NSW State Archives, Kingswood, 2019, p40. 8AUTUMN 2021 Clockwise from left Invasion III, Gordon Syron, 1999. Sydney Living Museums. © Gordon Syron; Christopher Zanko and Penelope Seidler am at Rose Seidler House. Photo Kim Ho © Sydney Living Museums; Tess Allas. Photo Pamela Amores © Sydney Living Museums Q: What influences have shaped your interest in contemporary art? A: I’m inspired by politics and history and the generosity and ingenuity of Indigenous artists and curators in retelling these histories, and especially those who aren’t afraid to explore new mediums and new ways of presenting these works. Being a curator provides me with the tools to help tell the important stories from communities and people who were once silenced or actively discouraged from speaking. Q: How can contemporary Indigenous art challenge or reinterpret sites such as museums that have traditionally advanced Eurocentric perspectives? A: Contemporary art has the ability to challenge societies’ understandings of their own customs and conventions, which include any accepted understandings of their own histories. Freeing the access points into these mores and privileging Indigenous artists who investigate their own communities’ perspectives will bring a more enriching experience for all. Q: And what role do museum collections play? A: Collections can play a vital role in the correcting of histories. Contemporary art collections broaden discussions of our colonial past and help provide a truer understanding of its impacts on our past and how these impacts echo into the present day. Contemporary art must be seen as a vital tool in understanding contemporary Australia. Q: What excites you about today’s generation of young Indigenous contemporary artists? A: Some of the most exciting art our nation produces is made by Indigenous artists. There’s a long history of Indigenous artists responding to contemporary Australia. Today’s younger artists are no exception. Some artists are working with contemporary mediums such as digital technologies – including drones, new design tools, apps, etc – to produce work that not only gives the nod to more traditional art forms but allows their contemporaries to be fully engaged with their practice. They’re breaking boundaries at such breathtaking rates that we’re left in awe in their wake. At the same time, the respect for their own histories and familial stories that are embedded in their work is evident and something I truly admire. Q: Can you tell us of any new acquisition directions you’ll be recommending for the Museum of Sydney? A: I’ve been investigating and providing advice on several new directions, including the collecting of works by Indigenous artists from all backgrounds and genders, as well as why, where and how to collect work that hasn’t traditionally been part of the collecting practice of the Museum of Sydney. It’s an exciting project and I look forward to seeing a collection that can contribute more fully to the story of Sydney, the story of NSW and the story of Australia. A truer understanding: Q&A with Tess Allas Consultant curator Tess Allas discusses her influences, her ambitions, and her thoughtful approach to the acquisition of Indigenous art for the Museum of Sydney. 9Q&A WITH TESS ALLASNext >