Monthly Archive for April, 2010

Décor wine coolers – 1980s Australian product design pt3

Published by Angelique Hutchison 7 Comments Tags: , , , , .

My earlier posts about 1980s Australian product design highlighted some serious and important Australian designs from that decade. Now for something different – something that represents the good times and the rise of a food and wine culture in Australia in the 1980s – the Décor wine coolers.

Collection: Powerhouse Museum. Graphic design by Andy Schmid.

The Décor BYO wine carrier was designed in 1978, but was the beginning of a range of products developed by Décor in the 1980s. It was very different from any other product on the market. It holds two bottles of wine or four drink cans, and the removable chiller can be frozen before being placed between the bottles to keep them cool.

The inspiration for the carrier came in 1978 when Décor founder Brian Davis attended an Australian Design Awards presentation, saw a canvas or hessian wine carry bag win an award and decided that his company could make a better one. The Australian practice of ‘BYO‘ began in the 1960s and dining out and wine consumption became popular in Australia from the 1970s. Prior to this plastic bags filled with ice cubes had been used to carry wine to restaurants. Sounds very messy!

Richard Carlson was employed to design the wine carrier and quickly developed the final design. The wine cooler had widespread success and was winner of an Australian Design Award in 1979 and the 1980 Prince Philip Prize for Australian Design. In 1980 the wine carrier was being manufactured under licence in USA, Sweden and West Germany and continues to sell more than 30 years later.

Collection: Powerhouse Museum

Décor decided in 1984 to take the same approach with a different product, the wine cask cooler. The idea for this new product sprang from the changing preferences of Australian drinkers – cask wine was becoming more popular and Décor decided to meet the needs of this new trend.

Again designed by Richard Carlson, over a period of two years, it holds the bag of wine from any four litre cask carton. The design presented many challenges for Carlson. He said, ‘fitting the cask bag into a box was like fitting a dozen pillows into the boot of a car’. However his ability to think in terms of mass, volume and space allowed him to translate an awkward situation into an elegant, useful solution which won an Australian Design Award in 1986. The cooler features a wedge shaped chiller bottle for the wine bag to sit on, this makes it easy to get all the wine from the bag.

This product indicates the popularity of wine sold by the cask, first introduced in the 1960s by Angoves Wines. Usually the cheapest wine available, the bag reduces the air contact with wine so once it is opened it lasts longer than wine in a bottle. In 2009 around 40% by volume of the wine sold in Australia was cask wine. Although now the cask is called a ‘soft pack’ and is often a smaller two litre bag containing the same wine as is sold by the bottle.

Along with the wine cask cooler Décor developed a new wine carrier, ice buckets and picnic hampers as a complete range of products. The company won more than 250 Australian Design Awards over the 1980s alone. In 1984 Richard Carlson was awarded the Design Institute of Australia Gold Medal Award for Industrial Design and Andy Schmid, graphic designer, was awarded a Design Institute of Australia National Award for graphic design. Décor founder Brian Davis, along with designers Richard Carlson and Tony Wolfenden were inducted into the Design Institute of Australia Hall of Fame in 1996.

Conservator’s Corner- The annual vintage Taralga Machinery Rally

Published by Erika Taylor 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

The Taralga Machinery Club ran its annual vintage machinery rally on the weekend of 21st/22nd November 2009. Despite the sweltering heat of 40′, over 900 people turned out to see the impressive exhibition of machinery. There were dozens of steam engines, stationary engines, tractors, models and a shearing demonstration. Because of the fire ban, no steam engines ran, but tractor engines were used to demonstrate some of the machinery in action. A wheat thrasher in action:

Photography by Kate Pollard © Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved.

This machine takes the stalks of wheat and seperates the heads from the hay. The residual hay is then bailed by the machine pictured below.

Photography by Kate Pollard © Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved.

There were many different types of steam engines present, such as this portable Southern Cross steam engine (horse drawn).

Photography by Kate Pollard © Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved.

Also included in the display were models of steam engines from the Powerhouse collection (A hand-made steam locomotive model made by A. Cardew. B2080 ).

Photography by Kate Pollard © Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved.

and toys from a different era – cast lead farm animals

Photography by Kate Pollard © Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved.

And shearing demonstrations powered by a tractor engine

Photography by Kate Pollard © Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved.

 

Puppetry and George Gittoes

Published by Anne-Marie Van de Ven 1 Comment Tags: , , , , .

Collection, Powerhouse Museum

I thought I’d share with you a few more photographs of the puppets that were made by Australian artist George Gittoes, with the help of his mother Joyce Gittoes, around 1970. The group relates to an earlier acquisition of material which includes a recreation of the Puppet Theatre.

This amazing collection of puppets was acquired recently as a donation under the Commonwealth Government’s Cultural Gifts Program. The puppets belong to a larger group of works called the George and Joyce Gittoes Yellow House Puppet Theatre collection which includes a collection of 13 puppets, 3 framed gouache and texta paintings, 5 ceramic sculptures by Gorge Gittoes and his mother Joyce Gittoes (I’ll blog about these remarkable works next time) and Gittoes cathartic set of 24 Hotel Kennedy suite etchings of the late 1960s. The handmade puppets are amazingly theatrical works which encapsulate Gittoes early interest in story telling through drama, live action and theatre, a passion and obsession which has led the artist to some of the most dangerous and remote parts of the world in recent years. All of the puppets are two sided and many, like the Joy Hester and Albert Tucker puppet from George’s ‘Artist’s wives’ series, are two faced and their liquid polystyrene profiles are often quite scary.

Collection, Powerhouse Museum

One of my favourite puppets from the recently acquired series, is what I refer to as George’s ‘Big Bird’ puppet. Made of soft stuffing in an oil painted canvas bird shape, it has wide outstretched wings and long skinny legs, with two loops on each wing for the puppeteers directional sticks. A loop behind the head has fishing line attached for hanging the puppet to display. This remarkable bird was designed and made by Gittoes in Sydney between 1968 and 1972.

Collection, Powerhouse Museum

Gittoes is now an internationally renowned activist and documentary filmmaker. His latest film ‘The Miscreants of Talliwood’ which was filmed in the Peshawah area of Pakistan, has just finished a successful showing at MoMA in New York.

During the showing, George featured as the daily ‘Connector’ on CNN’s ‘Connect the World’ blog. You can go read some of the questions that were thrown at George on that day if you go to the CNN blog.

Victorian Steampunk Jewellery

Published by Geoff Barker 1 Comment Tags: , , .
A3358

Verge watch brooch, 1885-1900, Powerhouse Museum A3358

This blog is really a response to Maduncle Cliff’s posts the other week. His look at the ‘steam punk’ aesthetic caught my eye as I happened to be working on what appeared to be a couple of 150 year old examples in the Museum’s watch collection.

The urge to cut-up and repurpose old watch parts into new artistic forms was something the Victorians appear to have been aware of in the 1880s. But although the results look very much like steampunk they appear to have been made as a direct result of changing times in the watch-making world rather than a desire to embrace a new aesthetic.

Verge watch

Sprial chain drive from a verge watch, Powerhouse Museum H9076

For around 300 years most watches used a verge escapement which controlled the speed of the unwinding spring (the escapement is also responsible for the ‘ticking’ you can hear as the spring unwinds). By the 1850s however big changes had taken place as new escapements and mass produced Swiss parts made the old verge watches redundant.

But these old watches were not cheap items. In many instances the cases were made from gold or silver and sometimes the owner would have a new mechanism fitted into the case rather than give it up. This was not the norm however and most ended up being either melted down and reused or claimed as collector’s pieces.

These cases however were only the exterior cover for the highly sophisticated piece of precision engineering inside and this mechanism also contained ornately engraved and artistically finished details. One stand-out feature was the ornate balance-cock attached to the back of the watch movement.

A6839

Verge watch brooch, reverse, 1885-1900, Powerhouse Museum A6839

It was these balance cocks which were repurposed to make the necklaces, brooches and earrings in these photographs. While it is clear they weren’t targeted at the highest end of the fashion world, as the finished work is quite rough, they must have been reasonably popular because surviving examples are not rare.

Verge watch necklace

Verge watch necklace, detail, 1885-1900, Powerhouse Museum, A3351

Mystery object (multiple choice!)

Published by Melanie Pitkin 6 Comments Tags: , , .

Collection: Powerhouse Museum

In response to Jacqui’s winning suggestion from our 1st birthday competition, we’ve put together our first multiple choice mystery object post!

The object above is made of solid boxwood with a metal end and measures 44mm in height x 35mm in diameter. Is it…?

a) Part of a lace bobbin
b) Handle from a walking stick
c) Spinning top
d) Door knob
e) Decorative carving

Answer: (c) Spinning top

‘That Dress’- Lady Sonia McMahon (1932-2010)

Published by Melanie Pitkin 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

The Powerhouse Museum acknowledges with sadness the recent passing of Lady Sonia McMahon on 2 April 2010.

Lady McMahon will be fondly remembered for her elegance and altruism (especially with regards to her tireless charity work) and of course – ‘that dress’, which Lady McMahon generously donated to the Powerhouse Museum back in 1987.

Collection: Powerhouse Museum

The dress was made famous when Mrs McMahon (she did not become Lady McMahon until 1977) wore it to a State Dinner hosted by President Richard Nixon at the White House, Washington DC, USA on 3 November 1971. She was accompanying her husband, the then Prime Minister, William ‘Bill’ McMahon (Australian Prime Minister, 1971-1972 and later Sir William).

Collection: Powerhouse Museum

The dress, designed by Melbourne couturier, Victoria Cascajo, is made from fully lined synthetic crepe held together with rhinestones infilled with flesh-coloured nylon fabric.

Mrs McMahon originally purchased the dress to be worn at the crowning of the Miss Australia contest, but sudden international travels to Downing Street, London and the White House commanded a change in plan!

Collection: Powerhouse Museum

Despite the somewhat ‘barely-there’ profile appearance of the dress, Mrs McMahon said that it was actually “very heavy and warm to wear”. In fact, Mrs McMahon never expected the dress to be so controversial and selected it for wear purely because it was “different” (in addition to the fact it was a firm favourite of her husband!). She said:

You had to wear so many long frocks to dinners all the time in those days, just one after the other, in all sorts of countries. And I was just sick of the normal frilly, frothy things”.

Collection: Powerhouse Museum

Mrs McMahon wore the dress a few more times before she donated it to the Museum in 1987. And, in 2005, re-appeared it in again (this time a replica) at the Golden Globe Awards in which her son, Julian, was up for nomination for his role in the US series ‘Nip/Tuck’.

See here for Lady McMahon wearing ‘That Dress’ in 1971 and the other version with Julian.

Meet our Regional Services Team- Rebecca Pinchin and Joanne Delzoppo

Published by Melanie Pitkin 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

Photography by Powerhouse Museum © all rights reserved.

The Regional Services Program at the Powerhouse Museum provides programs and services to the people of New South Wales and beyond the borders of Sydney. These programs and services include access to our collections, expertise and resources for individuals and groups such as local museums, historical societies and libraries in rural and regional communities. The Program is managed by Rebecca Pinchin with assistance from a wide range of other Museum staff, including Project Manager, Joanne Delzoppo. In this post, we meet both Rebecca and Joanne and discover a little more about their positions and how they got there.

What is your role in the regional services program?

Rebecca: I seem to do a lot of talking! I manage the Museum’s relationships with regional organisations and I keep the memory of our dealings over time. I see myself as a bit of a ‘plant’ within the Museum because I can assist community groups on how to approach the Museum by interpreting and guiding them. It’s a matter of knowing what we can offer and matching that to their needs.
Joanne: I am working as a Project Manager assisting Rebecca to run the diverse programs in Regional Services. This includes working on large projects such as the Australian Dress Register or some of the many small and important programs such as organising internships for cultural workers located in the regions. Internships are an opportunity for professional development for regional paid and volunteer staff where we tailor a program for them offering exposure to museum practices, the opportunity to work on a project with Powerhouse staff or to learn a specialised skill.

How did you end up in this job?

Rebecca: I came from an education background – I trained in fine arts and worked as an art teacher. Before working at the Museum, I was coordinating an outreach program at Western Institute of TAFE, Dubbo, providing training to disadvantaged and isolated groups from Dubbo to Broken Hill. Prior to that I was Director of Dubbo Regional Art Gallery. This job brings the two streams together.
Joanne: After studying fillm and photography at University, I qualified as an art and photography teacher. I worked for a short time at Ariah Park Central School before taking a position as Exhibitions Curator at the Wagga Wagga Regional Art Gallery. This was a wonderful and fulfilling role that was hands on in exposing me to all aspects of putting exhibitions and programs together, as well as running a regional art gallery. I have worked as an Exhibitions Coordinator and now Project Manager at the Powerhouse Museum for 9 years. As well as Regional Services, I work on temporary exhibitions, permanent exhibitions and the travelling exhibition program.

Do you spend a lot of time travelling?

Rebecca: I usually send other people travelling! I do still travel quite a bit. It’s not until you visit a site that you can see what the issues are. It’s an essential part of the process. Museum staff have probably visited 60-70 places over the past year. Often the local people know the answer to a problem but they need the confidence. We can say you’re right on the right track. That’s about 75% of what we do. These are usually volunteer groups, often unfunded, using whatever support they can call on.
Joanne: As a Project Manager, we can do some travelling expecially with the travelling exhibition program. Lately, however, I have been organising others to travel to install a number of exhibitions including: Contemporary Japanese Fashion: The Gene Sherman Collection to Lake Macquarie, Ties with Tradition: Macedonian apron design to the University of Wollongong and a large loan of the Museum’s chairs to Bathurst Regional Art Gallery for their collaborative exhibitions Sit, Fold & Stack.

What’s a typical working day for you?

Rebecca: Curator Eva Czernis-Ryl and I went to the Riverina for the opening of an exhibition about a pastoral property by the Lockhart Historical Society. In our collection we have a silver Corinthian cup made in 1881 for a local horse race. We took the cup for the opening and it was on display for the weekend. Then we went to another local museum about 40kms down the road where the race club had been. We spoke to the ladies there and sparked their interest and now they’re finding out more about the racing club and we are helping with their collection.
Joanne: A typical day is working on schedules for various programs, talking about the Australian Dress Register website, organising an exhibition to visit a regional venue, moving crates that have just returned from a regional tour, chasing up copyright for an image we want to use in an exhibition, reviewing the exhibition design for the latest exhibition, talking to staff about the marketing campaign for a project, liasing with the many varied departments in the Museum to chase up issues or get them to assist with a project.

What aspect of the job do you enjoy most?

Rebecca: When you make something happen that otherwise wouldn’t, like getting the cup to Lockhart. It’s an A category object (high significance) and the standard response would be to say “no, it can’t travel”. But instead you look at the issues and work around them. It only works if you’ve got someone whose job it is to do that. It has a huge impact and people are so appreciative. We have ensured access to something that is special and part of their local history.
Joanne: The diversity of the projects I work on means I am always learning something. There is great satisfaction when a project is completed, whether it is large or small, or you have helped someone learn or complete something.

Pedestrian button – 1980s Australian product design pt2

Published by Angelique Hutchison 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

 

Powerhouse Museum photography. © all rights reserved

The next instalment of my favourite Australian designed products from the 1980s continues on with the transport theme. 

The pedestrian button, found at a pedestrian crossing near you, was designed in 1984. But it is really the product of research and development done in the 1970s in response to public pressure on government.

In 1967 a member of the public asked the NSW Department of Main Roads (DMR), now the Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA), to introduce pedestrian traffic signals he could hear. At a city crossing, the RTA installed some bells and buzzers on both sides. Blind pedestrians were meant to cross when the buzzing sound replaced the ringing. Unfortunately they found that when the bells broke down they sounded like buzzers, which could cause deadly confusion in blind pedestrians.

The next version, installed in 1976, had a two-rhythm buzzer and included a vibrating panel to touch, because many vision-impaired people also have some loss of hearing. This new device was developed by acoustic and vibration engineers Louis A Challis and Associates. It had two different signals for ‘Walk’ and ‘Don’t Walk’, and the sound level was automatically lowered in response to background noise, reducing annoyance to people living near a crossing.

In the early 1980s Sydney consultants Nielsen Design Associates were asked to redesign the device to make it vandal-resistant. The new unit was made from cast aluminium with vandal-proof fixings. The large magnetic button (tested to withstand millions of pushes) is easy to find and push. A Braille arrow on the vibrating plate indicates the direction to cross. Listen to the different ‘Walk’ and ‘Don’t Walk’ sounds here.

More than 25 years later, the pedestrian button is still working well, and has been used in the Middle East, Asia, Europe, South Africa and the USA.

Conservator’s Corner: Investigating our plastics collection

Published by Erika Taylor 1 Comment Tags: , , .

Collection: Powerhouse Museum.

During the period 1929-55, the Museum director Arthur de Raymond Penfold became fascinated by a new material called plastic and stated:

The way they stirred the imagination of the public is as much a marvel as the wizardry of the modern organic chemist who gave us the great invention.

The Powerhouse Museum has a wonderful plastic collection which also includes some of the raw materials for plastic fabrication. We have started a preservation research project this year to analyse and identify the types of plastics collected during this period. We plan to identify the composition of each object.

Investigating our plastic collection

Photography by Powerhouse Museum © all rights reserved

Our analysis is being carried out using a Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer (FTIR). When infrared radiation interacts with matter it can be absorbed, causing the chemical bonds in the matter to vibrate. Chemical structural fragments within molecules are known as functional groups. Each functional group absorbs infrared radiation in the same wave-number range regardless of the structure of the rest of the molecule. For instance, the C=O stretch of a carbonyl group occurs at ~ 1700cm-1 in ketones, aldehydes and carboxylic acids.

Spectrum showing Carbonyl group position at ~ 1700cm-1

This means there is a correlation between the wave-numbers at which the molecule absorbs infrared radiation and its structure. This correlation allows the structure of an unknown material to be identified by comparison of the infrared spectrum of that material to spectral libraries of known materials.

The identification of each object’s composition will help us to determine the conservation needs for each item. We will be considering factors affecting deterioration rates, storage and exhibition requirements. This analysis will increase and verify the information held in the Museum’s object collection records.

Happy Anniversary Messiah!

Published by Michael Lea 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Collection: Powerhouse Museum

The 13th April marks the anniversary of the first performance of George Frideric Handel’s oratorio, Messiah. This was premiered in Dublin on 13th April 1742. Now a 268th anniversary may seem a bit excessive to celebrate and some may even say that after the first 267, who’s counting. But it’s special for the Powerhouse Museum because we have a copy of Messiah in the hand of John Christopher Smith, Handel’s copyist, in the collection and we’ve recently put it on display in our musical instruments exhibition.

The copy was done during Handel’s lifetime and was one of three sets that were made. The section in the Museum’s collection is the second part of one of the sets and features the Hallelujah Chorus. On Handel’s death in 1759 it was given to Messiah’s librettist Charles Jennens. He bequeathed it to his cousin, the Earl of Aylesford, where it passed through the generations until it was finally sold in 1917. Soon after, it was bought by the publisher and Handel author Sir Newman Flower, who in turn gave it to the English contralto singer Phyllis Lett (Phyllis sung in several performances of Messiah), for a wedding present. Phyllis died in 1962 and it is uncertain what became of the manuscript until it was bought by collector and Museum benefactor, Mr EA Crome. It was acquired by the Powerhouse Museum in 1981.

Michael Lea
Curator, Music and Musical Instruments