Hidden treasures and stories from our collection
91/1114, Papercut Chrysanthemum flower, symbolising riches and honour (Fu gui hua), China, 1930-1940. Collection: Powerhouse Museum
Chrysanthemums are often given as mothers day flowers in Australia, as they are in season in May. However they have a longer history, initially cultivated in China as a flowering herb as far back as the 15th century BC.
Echo of a millennium Korean dancers performing at Powerhouse Museum 2011. Photography Sotha Bourn
“Ask Koreans … what appeals in Korean music and typical responses will focus on feelings … Korean music tugs at the heartstrings. Korean music – and, by extension, Korean musical instruments… – alone reflect the air, the water, and the soil of the Korean peninsula.” (Howard 1995: 9)
This photograph was taken at a traditional Korean performance at the Powerhouse Museum last year, coinciding with the opening of the Spirit of jang-in: treasures of Korean metal craft exhibition. If you look at the two musicians in the centre of the stage, you can see that they are each playing a gong, one small and one large.
Continue reading ‘Traditional Korean gongs – reflection and resonance’
148 Insect model, queen bee, papier mache / metal, made by Dr Auzoux, Paris, France, 1883
If you’re in Maitland between 21 and 29 April, drop into Brough House in Church Street, to see some of the Powerhouse Museum’s beekeeping collection. It’s featuring in an exhibition called Amazing Bees, the contribution of JW and WS Pender to the Australasian Bee Industry.
Continue reading ‘Bee Delighted’
Showbag and contents, A Team Collection, 1983: Powerhouse Museum
Going to an Easter show is almost a childhood rite of passage for Sydneysiders. Apart from looking at a variety of animals, agricultural pavilions, side shows and competitions like wood chopping there was always the draw of the Show Bag Pavilion. Selecting which show bag, the lolly or TV show based one (or if you were lucky a couple of show bags) was part of the day’s excitement.
Continue reading ‘Sydney Royal Easter Show’
2007/30/1-29/21 Christmas card, Phoebe, Wilfrid and Charlotte Rolfe to Dahl and Geoffrey Collings and family, paper/ink, Dahl and Geoffrey Collings, Killcare Heights, New South Wales, Australia, 1946
Saturday 31st March, 8:30-9:30 is Earth hour and it gives us a chance to turn off the lights and do things we may not normally do. More than 2 million individuals and 2,000 businesses in Sydney took part in the First Earth hour in 2007. Earth Hour has grown to millions of people in over 5000 cities across 135 countries.
Continue reading ‘Things to do in the dark, ideas for Earth Hour’
2007/50/64 Music magazine, 'Juke' Melbourne, used by Festival Records, Sydney, 1986. Collection: Powerhouse Museum
Vince Lovegrove was an Australian journalist, music manager, television producer, musician and AIDS awareness campaigner. Perhaps best known for his job as manager of rock group Divinyls and singer Jimmy Barnes. Lovegrove was a member of a 1960s band the Valentines sharing vocals with Bon Scott whom he later introduced to heavy rock group AC/DC.
Continue reading ‘Vince (Vincent) Lovegrove, 1948 – 2012′
Sandstone details Pirrama Rd, Pyrmont: Photography Jean - Francois Lanzarone
When I walk around Pyrmont I look for glimpses of sandstone. The material that once formed the distinctive cliffs and gulleys on the peninsula. Now it exists as the nearly invisible layers beneath the streets and buildings. My way of seeing this local landscape shifted after curating an exhibition that examined the changes in Pyrmont and Ultimo since white settlement.
Sydney Harbour Bridge from Dawes Point, Photography Jean -Francois Lanzarone Powerhouse Museum
What’s the fuss you say?
Well today is the birthday of an Australian icon, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, fondly known as the coathanger. Now eighty years old the Bridge has become a symbol of Sydney and of Australia, its arch shaped structure adding definition to the beautiful harbour and inspiring songs, artworks, photographs and poems like this one by Dorothy Auchterlonie’s (Green) 1940 poem Kaleidoscope:
Twinkle Twinkle little stars
On a million motor- cars
Along the Harbour Bridge so high
Like a coat-hanger in the sky
87/692 Neckpiece, made by Won Ho Chong, Adelaide , 1981. Collection: Powerhouse Museum
The Asian art and design collection of the Powerhouse Museum holds many fine examples of metal craft, including a significant collection of decorated Japanese tsuba (sword guards), as well as kozuka knife sheaths and handles, which use an alloy of copper and gold named shakudo.
This neckpiece also uses shakudo, as well as shibuichi (a copper-silver alloy), copper and sterling silver. It was made by Won Ho Chong in Adelaide, South Australia in 1981 and acquired in 1987 – making this the first Korean-Australian object in the collection.
Won Ho Chong was born on 28 October 1934 in Busan, South Korea, during Japanese occupation. Chong initially studied literature at university, although interest led him to traditional metal craft and design during the early 1960s in Seoul. In 1964 Chong started his own jewellery design studio, and in the following years he received awards at international craft and design competitions, such as in Japan and the USA. In 1967 he undertook an artist’s residency at the Yamada Reiko studio in Tokyo. Chong migrated to Australia in 1970 and in 1976 he studied Japanese metal craft under Master Satsuo Ando, among others, after receiving an Australia Council grant. From 1978-1981 Chong lectured at the South Australian College of Advanced Education, and it was in 1981 that he made this neckpiece.
87/692 Neckpiece, made by Won Ho Chong, Adelaide, 1981. Collection: Powerhouse Museum.
Chong’s work is influenced both by traditional Korean and Japanese materials, techniques and craftsmanship, particularly the patination of different alloys to create a range of colours. The dark brown to black metal seen in the neckpiece is an alloy of copper and gold, named shakudo in Japanese or odong in Korean. It is also referred to by many other names, including ‘red copper’, ‘black gold’, and ‘crow’s gold’, the latter term due to the similarity of the classic blue-black colour to crow’s feathers. However, with different ratios of gold to copper, a range of colours can be achieved through patination. The blue-black colour is a result of 3-5% gold, brown to black colours are a product of 0.25-3% gold, and ‘purple gold’ has a gold content of over 10% (Oguchi 1983: 125 and O’Dubhghaill & Jones 2009: 290).
The silver-grey colour seen on the neckpiece is an alloy of copper and silver called shibuichi in Japanese, and is also known as misty or hazy silver. Shibuichi, or ‘a quarter’, is so named as the silver conventionally amounts to 25% of the alloy’s composition. Just as with shakudo/odong, there are colour variations in shibuichi, such as a light variant that contains a high amount of silver, and a dark variant that contains copper, silver and gold (Oguchi 1983: 125 and O’Dubhghaill & Jones 2009: 291).
Briefly, the traditional process of creating these alloys involves melting the copper in a carbon crucible, and adding the desired quantity of gold and/or silver. The alloy is then poured into a mould in a hot water bath, which slows down the cooling process and increases the workability of the ingot. It is then hammered or pressed into a sheet or plate and annealed. Surface finishing is vital to create the desired colours – first the piece is polished using stone and charcoal, then cleaned with sodium bicarbonate, dipped in a colouring solution made of the juice of white radish, and finally immersed into a boiling colour solution, where the colouration of the alloys take place (Oguchi 1983: 125-129 and O’Dubhghaill & Jones 2009: 291-293).
You can see this object and many more in Spirit of jang-in: treasures of Korean metal craft, but hurry as the exhibition closes this Sunday 12th February!
Alysha Buss, Assistant Curator for Spirit of jang-in: treasures of Korean metal craft
References
O’Dubhghaill, Coilin and Jones, A. Hywel, 2009, ‘Japanese irogane alloys and patination – a study of production and application’, in Proceedings of the twenty-third Santa Fe symposium on jewellery manufacturing technology, Albuquerque, New Mexico, May 2009, Met-Chem Research, pp 289-324.
Oguchi, Hachiro, 1983, ‘Japanese Shakudo: Its history, properties and production from gold-containing alloys’, Gold Bulletin 16 (4):125-132
97/92/15-11 Dragon or lion, ceramic, part of personal effects, Wong family, Australia, 1880-1930 Collection: Powerhouse Museum
Sydney holds the largest Lunar New Year festival outside Asia, where communities from Asia celebrate the first day of the first lunar month of the year. Lunar or Chinese New Year falls on 23 January this year, with celebration lasting 15 days, until the first full moon appears.
It’s a time for renewal, family gatherings, eating rich foods and paying respect to your ancestors and elders. Sydneysiders have become familiar with the festival of the new year celebrated with dragon boats races, lions dances and night markets, creating a festival atmosphere, particularly in Chinatown and Ultimo communities.
Chinese new year celebrations, Chinatown in haymarket, Sydney, Image: Sotha Bourn, Powerhouse Museum
The Year of 2012 is the Year of the Dragon, the fifth sign of the Chinese Zodiac, which consists of 12 Animal signs. More specifically it is the year of the water dragon a creature of myth and legend and in ancient China, the celestial Dragon represented an emperor and power. Today, it is the ultimate symbol for success and happiness.
A4034-4 Snuff bottle, famille-rose enamelled porcelain, maker unknown, China, Qianlong reign (1736-1795) of Qing dynasty. Collection: Powerhouse Museum
The origin of the Chinese dragon is not certain. The presence of dragon in Chinese culture can dates back several thousands of years with the discovery of a dragon statue dating back to the fifth millennium BC from the Yangshao culture in Henan in 1987, and jade badges of rank in coiled form have been excavated from the Hongshan culture circa 4700-2900 BC.
The dragon and other symbols of good luck are represented within the Museum’s collection.
2010/75/1-6 Glass lantern slide, Jiulong Bi (Nine-Dragon-Screen) in Beihai Park, hand coloured glass / metal, made by Serge Vargassoff, Peking, China, 1920-1949. Collecton : Powerhouse Museum
Like this lantern slide taken by the Russian-born photographer Serge Vargassoff (1906-1965) who established himself as a professional photographer at the age of 20, in Peking (Beijing), China and became a long-term resident of the city. The slide shows a panel depicting a pair of dragons playing in the clouds. They are the two of the nine dragons on the Jiulong Bi (Nine-Dragon-Screen) in Beihai Park, Peking. This large glazed stone screen was built in 1756 and is one of three screens of the same kind in China. The screen is decorated on both sides with nine dragons playing in the clouds.
The Museum will hold activities to celebrate Chinese new year.
While our digitisation project is well underway, with 80% of collection objects currently listed online, there is much more work to be done. Your donation will assist the Powerhouse to add high quality photographs and full background information for the 50% of online objects with incomplete listings.