Trainspotting 2011

Published by Paula Bray on February 4, 2012 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

This is our Trainspotting 2011 photo competition exhibition that is currently on display at the Museum. We have 47 amazing photographs featured in this exhibition from our 2011 competition that we run on Flickr. This exhibition will only be on until the 13th February. Don’t forget that you can also enter your photos into our 2012 Trainspottting photo competition which is now open. All the details are on our website and you can also enter via our Flickr group.

Photography by Marinco Kojdanovski
© All rights reserved

Traditional Sanjo music

Published by Paula Bray on February 3, 2012 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

This is a detail of a Korean musician dressed in national costume playing an instrument and performing traditional Korean, Sanjo folk music that featured during the opening of our exhibition Spirit of jang-in: treasures of Korean metal work.This opening was celebrating the exhibition which traces the development of metal craft from ancient artisans to the spectacular ‘kingdoms of gold’ of the Silla royalty, the influence of Buddhism on craft skills and practice, the simple beauty of everyday objects, and the impact of the dark days of the early 20th century. Reflecting a contemporary spirit of jang-in, a selection of works from Korean artists living in Korea and Australia is also featured.

This exhibition closes on the 12th of February.

Photography by Sotha Bourn
© All rights reserved

Interlace

Published by Paula Bray on February 2, 2012 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

This is one of the digital artworks that is featured in our Love Lace exhibition. The work, created by Cecilia Heffer and Bert Bongers, consists of video projection: silkscreened, machine stitched silk organza on soluble substrates embedded with sensors, interacting with a digital interface projection of the Australian landscape.

This is their artist statement:

InterLace is an interactive video lace installation. The work sits between the definitions of a built environment and a multimedia environment. It is a response to the space and landscape of the travels by the artists separately and together within Australia.

Designed as a visual, spatial and tangible sensory experience, the work transforms lace in a three-dimensional augmented environment. Traditional expressions of lace pattern are redefined through the use of innovative materials, process and video technologies.

Sensors stitched into fragile delicate lace surfaces detect changes in light, and the proximity and movement of the audience. The work becomes an augmented fabric, with a multiplicity of layers of image and meaning; exploring the spatial mysterious interplay between real and virtual worlds. Its layers explore light and shadow between material and ephemeral perceptions of negative and positive space.

Photography by Marinco Kojdanovski
© All rights reserved

George Street

Published by Paula Bray on February 1, 2012 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

George Street near Hunter Street, Sydney

This image taken sometime between 1884-1917 comes from our Tyrrell glass plate negative collection. This full plate is titled ‘George Street near Hunter Street’ and was photographed by Kerry and Co. Our collection states:

This photographic negative is one of 2900 Kerry & Co. photographs in the Powerhouse Museum’s ‘Tyrrell Collection’ once owned by Sydney bookseller, James Tyrrell. Almost all of these negatives are 21.5 x 20.3 cm (10 x 8 inch) glass plates and many of those now held by the Powerhouse Museum collection would have been used to create postcards. In addition to the Kerry & Co. Studio images, the Tyrrell Collection at the Powerhouse Museum includes glass plate negatives published by Henry King and a number of other negatives by unattributed photographers

Using the zoomify tool on our website you can read all the signs featured on the building facades. Here is a screenshot as an example.

Photography by Kerry and Co
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Boy and Water Buffalo

Published by Iwona Hetherington on January 31, 2012 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

This is yet another image from the collection of hand coloured lantern slides donated to the Museum in 1978 by the Australia – China Society.

According to The Continuum Encyclopedia of Animal Symbolism in World Art by Hope B. Werness, scenes of young boys riding water buffalos, as depicted in the above image, have been very popular throughout Chinese art history. The juxtaposition of a young vulnerable child and a physically powerful animal were to symbolise docile nature of buffalos and ease with which they can be made obedient, even by a child. The water buffalo and ox also symbolise spring, the season in which farmers return to the fields with their buffalo drawn ploughs.

Photographer unknown
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The Hall of Gods, Hualin Temple, 1872

Published by Geoff Barker on January 30, 2012 0 Comments

The Temple of the 500 Gods, photographer John Thomson, 1872

This photograph was taken by the British photographer John Thomson around 140 years ago during his travels through China. It shows an interior view of ‘hall of gods’ in the Buddist ‘Temple of the 500 Gods’ or ‘Magnificent Forest Temple’. Nowadays this early temple is most often referred to as the Hualin Temple.

In 1872 Thomson, an Englishman, travelled to the western suburbs of Guangzhou, which he referred to as Canton to take a series of photographs of the Temple. It was built during Southern Song Dynasty (nán sòng) but was expanded in 1654 when it was renamed Hualin Temple. According to Thomson the temple was again rebuilt in 1775, under the direction of the Emperor Kien-lung making it one of the five largest Buddhist temples in Guangzhou, with a large team of monks.

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Photographing an interior like this was no easy task as the emulsions were much less receptive to light. As a result you can see how the light from the windows has bled into the photograph due to Thomson’s long exposure.

Shanghai Bund, c. 1930

Published by Kathy Hackett on January 29, 2012 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

This beautiful hand-coloured glass lantern slide showing The Bund in Shanghai is part of a collection of images that depict aspects of China in the early 20th century, including historical places, architecture, social etiquette, minority groups and their customs and geography of China with an emphasis on Peking.

According to the museum catalogue records, the street shown in the image is Zhongshan Road, which runs along the western bank of the Huangpu River. The Bund usually refers to the buildings and wharves on this section of the road, as well as some adjacent areas. The Shanghai Bund has dozens of historical buildings that once housed numerous banks and trading houses from the United Kingdom, France, the United States, Italy, Russia, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Belgium, as well as the consulates of Russia and Britain, a newspaper, the Shanghai Club and the Masonic Club. This was initially a British settlement; later the British and American settlements were combined in the International Settlement. A building boom at the end of 19th century and beginning of 20th century led to the Bund becoming a major financial hub of East Asia.

The Shanghai of the 1920s and 30s came to be represented as a glamorous and mysterious place where western modernism and eastern exoticism met. The street in the photograph is filled with men in traditional Chinese dress and rows of modern motor cars. Shanghai was also the centre of Chinese fashion and became known as ‘the Paris of the East.’ Many artists, writers, performers and entrepreneurs were drawn to the burgeoning port city during this period.

Florence Broadhurst, some of whose portraits have been posted previously on Photo of the Day, was one expatriate resident of Shanghai in the mid 1920s.

According to the original catalogue record, the box of lantern slides from which this image was drawn was originally given to the Australia – China Society by the Methodist Church at the time they joined the Uniting Church of Australia in 1977. One of the lantern slides shows a portrait of Hudson Taylor who was the founder of the China Inland Mission (CIM, now OMF International) who visited Australia at the end of 19th century to promote the Australian Missions. The box is inscribed, ‘The Rev. Cannon’. The Reverend Cannon possibly had a relationship with CIM or the Australian Missions during the 1930s.

Lantern slides, positive photographic images designed for projection, were commonly used as an educational tool, often to illustrate lectures. The set of slides from which this image is drawn may have been used as part of an education program for people who were going to the China Inland Mission to learn about China and the CIM programs.

Post by Kathy Hackett, Photo Librarian

Photographer unknown
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Chief Priest, Hualin Buddhist Temple, 1872

Published by Geoff Barker on January 28, 2012 0 Comments

The Abbot, Hualin Temple, photographer John Thomson, 1872

This photograph of the Chief Priest of the Hualin Temple was taken by John Thomson sometime around 1872. He first met this Priest some three years earlier when he was introduced by a local Customs Official. According to Thomson he was received with great courtesy, conducted to his private apartments, and then offered tea-cakes and fruit.

While in the apartments Thomson was also taken aback by the rare and beautiful flowers which grew in this inner sanctum of the temple, particularly a Sacred Lotus in full bloom, and growing in an ornamental tank. The Priest who had spent over half his life in the temple was ‘greatly devoted’ to the flowers spending some time describing their beauty to his visitor.

This photograph was taken on Thoson’s second visit and in it we can see the same priest with some of the flowers and plants he so carefully nurtured.

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Bride and groom

Published by Kathy Hackett on January 27, 2012 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

This beautiful hand-coloured glass lantern slide is part of a collection of images that depict aspects of China in the early 20th century, including historical places, architecture, social etiquette, minority groups and their customs and geography of China with an emphasis on Peking.

According to the original catalogue record, the box of lantern slides was originally given to the Australia – China Society by the Methodist Church at the time they joined the Uniting Church of Australia in 1977. One of the lantern slides shows a portrait of Hudson Taylor who was the founder of the China Inland Mission (CIM, now OMF International) who visited Australia at the end of 19th century to promote the Australian Missions. The box is inscribed, ‘The Rev. Cannon’. The Reverend Cannon possibly had a relationship with CIM or the Australian Missions during the 1930s.

Lantern slides, positive photographic images designed for projection, were commonly used as an educational tool, often to illustrate lectures. The set of slides from which this image is drawn may have been used as part of an education program for people who were going to the China Inland Mission to learn about China and the CIM programs. The colouring of the slides was an important way of conveying accurate information about China, in this case, the custom of the bride wearing red, a colour associated with strength and luck.

Post by Kathy Hackett, Photo Librarian

Photographer unknown
No known copyright restrictions

Tea House, Guangzhou, 1872

Published by Geoff Barker on January 26, 2012 0 Comments

Tea House, Guangzhou, photographer John Thomson, 1872

In 1872, when Thomson visited Gaungzhou (Canton), most of the tea-firing houses were situated next to a river or creek. In this photograph we can see a number of men who were employed during the ‘tea season’ to pick and sort the tea, or preparing the chests it was to be stored in. Inside the tea-house are one or two offices where the partners, treasurer and bookkeeper work, while outside the chairs and table were made ready for visitors.

The rear of the house was where the tea is stored and weighed before being exported while above women and children worked in the loft. Here they removed stalks and foreign matter from the bamboo trays on which the tea is spread out.

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As an English colonial Thomson was very impressed with the business-like atmosphere of the place “… where a thoroughly organized system of divided labour has produced from the leaf of a single shrub so many varieties of one of the most delicate and salutary luxuries we posses.”