JINGHUA QIAN – HARD READ

Object No. 97/92/14-5  What does it cost to be visible? Chinese and trans people shift in and out of focus in Australia’s historical records – appearing and disappearing, code-switching, oscillating. Through the lens of turn-of-the-century portrait photography, Jinghua Qian looks at the privilege …

SALLY OLDS – MUTUAL OBLIGATION

Object No. 2007/56/104 In Mutual Obligation Sally Olds looks into unemployment activism in 1970s Australia, when Malcolm Fraser was Prime Minister and Milton Friedman toured the continent. The piece tracks the links between unemployed worker unions, the origin of the ‘dole bludger’, and the rise o…

OMAR MUSA – RADIESTHESIA

Object No. 87/1192 Omar Musa responds to the Radiesthesia pendulum in a piece about divination and love. ‘I was drawn to this object because it seemed evocative of the type of spirit that poets (and yearning lovers) often invoke, a summoning or divination process, where the lines between art and p…

MIYUKI JOKIRANTA – A RADIATING BODY

Object No. 2004/42-1 A Radiating Body turns to the not-so-distant past, when the body still held mystery and medicine still had a touch of magic about it. This replica of a multi-wave oscillator machine, built by Angas Vivian Jones in 1970s Sydney, is at once a homemade therapeutic device, and a c…

JOHN JACOBS AND JANE CURTIS – PUSH TO WALK: A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE PEDESTRIAN BUTTON

Object No. 87/234-1 The PB/5 pedestrian crossing button is a celebrated icon of Australian design. Its renowned sound became part of an independent movement for social change, and the audio tactile pedestrian button became an irreplaceable feature in our neighbourhoods. In Push to Walk: A People’s…

ALEXANDRA SPENCE – STELLAR NULLIUS

Object No. 97/254/1 Alexandra Spence’s work explores earth’s material relationship with space via satellite disposal and debris, and the uncanny historic connections between electronic music and space exploration. Travelling through orbits, life cycles and transmissions, Stellar Nullius reconsider…

DAKOTA FEIRER – THE MORAL FRONTIER

Object No. 88/394-1 The Moral Frontier is a mosaic of thoughts, yarns and poetic reflections on the history of the Native Police, particularly the Native Mounted Police in Queensland. By reflecting on this history, The Moral Frontier exposes confronting truths about the pervasive relationships sti…

OSCILLATIONS TRAILER

From heartbeats to brainwaves, economic cycles to cosmic orbits, oscillations can be found everywhere. These seven stories bring Dakota Feirer, Alexandra Spence, Jinghua Qian, John Jacobs and Jane Curtis, Miyuki Jokiranta, Omar Musa and Sally Olds into Powerhouse’s Collection of over 500,000 object…