What’s in the workshop #2

Thanks to everyone for the wonderful response to our first post in the ‘What’s in the workshop series’. We will definitely be bringing you more of these over the coming weeks. I am now seeing the workshop in a new way. Paula

Look what we found in the workshop this morning!

Initially I thought it was some kind of invention, using peddle power to get yourself to the shops whilst drying your clothes at the same time. Everyone loves a Hill’s Hoist , it’s a great Australian design icon , so why not throw one onto a quad bike? Brilliant.

But, as a curator I should probably do a little research before I make such outrageous suggestions.

The bike was actually used in one of Sydney’s biggest street parades called the ‘Journey of a Nation’ on January 1 2001. It was a parade that attempted to recreate the Federation Parade (see ABC) in 1901, which almost solely featured soldiers and dignitaries.

The parade in 2001 was used to illustrate how far we had come as a nation and included Aboriginal Australians, women, as well as some of our greatest innovations.

I am beginning to think the Powerhouse has a fetish for strange things on wheels (ie prawn bike and licorice shoe trike). The only thing this wheeled wonder is missing is the oversized apples! Then it’s out of the workshop and off to the Odditorium.

Photography by Paula Bray
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Post by Erika Dicker, Curator