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Discovering the Five Hundred Arhats of Changnyeongsa Temple

December 8, 2021

Min-Jung Kim
Kim Byeongho — a farmer and his wife — used to be frequent visitors to a hillside in Yeongwol, Gangwon-do province, Republic of Korea that had long been known to locals as the Mudeomchi (Hill of Graves) temple site.
A young woman wearing a kilt is looking at the photographer and stands next to a steam wagon. The steam wagon, which is surrounded by clouds of steam, is standing on a concrete pavement outside a workshop. A steam wagon is a self-propelled steam-powered truck with a timber tip tray. The side of the steam wagon has the wording 'Municipality of Rockdale' for whom the wagon was built and the front has the manufacturer's name, 'Aveling & Porter'. A man with a long beard is standing on the other side of the wagon looking at the wagon's steam engine.

Career of a Powerhouse Museum Curator

January 13, 2021

Margaret Simpson
How do you condense a lifetime's dream job as a curator at Sydney's Powerhouse Museum into around 1,000 words? Well, my career at the Museum began on 1 February 1983 as a Research Assistant with the Department of Transport and Engineering when the Powerhouse was still a construction site.
Black rubber mask shaped to cover the whole face. It has two glass eye pieces, positioned below is a circular perforated valve for breathing out and a brown rectangular canister attached by flexible pipe.

The Modern Mask

October 21, 2020

Nina Earl
Concept work on the recently opened exhibition, Design for Life, started in late 2019. At this point in time, Australia had not yet experienced some of the worst bushfires on record and the world was blissfully unaware of the pandemic that would emerge in early 2020.
White earthenware kangaroo on a black studio background. To the right of the kangaroo is a upright metal ruler (for scale), paper object tag, and colour reference chart. The kangaroo is about 20cm tall.

International Museum Day 2020: Digitising the Powerhouse Collection

May 18, 2020

Powerhouse
We are digitising more than 330,000 items in the Powerhouse Collection to provide extraordinary levels of community access and support ongoing research and interpretation. The Powerhouse is custodian to over half a million objects of national and international significance spanning cultures and millennia.
Exhibition view showing the Soviet era Cosmos‑782 Bion satellite in the foreground with selection of models from casts of horse jaws made, in the background is a detail of the Porkhani video by Javad Azimi and Hamid Hosseini. The walls in the space are painted a fluoro, hi-vis yellow and have led strip lighting.

Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh and Hesam Rahmanian: I Prefer Talking to Doctors About Something Else

April 9, 2020

Katie Dyer
Dubai-based artists Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh and Hesam Rahmanian work collectively to create expansive installations composed of artworks and artefacts. Taking the form of visual poetry by incorporating and disorganising objects from the Powerhouse Museum collection, this project, includes artefacts such as Skylab space debris, a donkey’s hoof, anatomical models, ceramics, and textiles.
Aerial photo with a weathervane, mounted on top of a large yellow time ball, with various sandstone buildings below. The Sydney Harbour Bridge, The Rocks area, Sydney Harbour and Luna Park can be seen in the background.

Meteorology at Sydney Observatory

February 26, 2020

Powerhouse
Meteorology, the study of the Earth’s atmosphere and weather conditions, plays a significant role in determining climate trends and patterns and their impact on the environment. It is a branch of science that has become even more relevant as we observe the devastating consequences of climate change all over the world.
Schedule graphic for Ask a Curator Day. Black text on a blue background with an image of a model Lunar Lander on the right. The text reads: Ask a Curator Day at MAAS / Wednesday 18 September, 10am-5pm / 10-11 Amelia & Alex (Visitor Services, Education); 11-12 Roger & Kristina (Fashion); 12-1 Nina (Science and Technology); 1-2 Bronwyn & Paul (Conservation, Archives); 2-3 Sarah & Andrew (Sydney Observatory); 3-4 Vanessa & Min (Asian Arts and Design); 4-5 Anni & Campbell (Social History, Design) / Join the conversation on Twitter @maasmuseum #askacurator

Ask a Curator Day 2019

September 17, 2019

Sarah Reeves
The Museum staff have a huge job caring for our enormous collection of over 500,000 objects. Our team includes experts in a vast range of areas, including: fashion, health and medicine, architecture, engineering, sciences, design, decorative arts, technologies and contemporary culture.
A large, square, hand embroidered quilt on a cream background. The outside edge has been bound with red stitching in a zig-zag pattern. The dominant central motif is a black elephant embroidered with trappings and flowers, surrounded by four padma (lotus), amidst a profusion of gaily coloured plants, birds and symbols of everyday life. The central panel is surrounded by dark red herringbone stitching. The outer border consists of red and pink flowers and green leaves which are varying interpretations of the lotus flower, being different on each of the four sides. On each of the long sides the lotus are interspersed with a sweeping 's' line. Inside that border again, on a pale blue background, there is a row of yellow boteh (in Bangladesh, kalka) motifs.

Stories on cloth: Surayia Rahman’s kantha embroidery

September 11, 2019

Vanessa Thorne
How many hands does it take to create a kantha tapestry like this? In this instance, it was the work of eight women embroidering every day for one year. Threading not only a story of traditional motifs, but also the international recognition of an ancient craft and women’s socio-economic emancipation in Bangladesh and West Bengal.
Four women pose for a photo with The Sydney Harbour Bridge and The Opera House in the background.

Storytelling at its best: Journalism meets Museums

September 4, 2019

Helena Rainert
As a communication student majoring in Journalism and International Studies, I am not your typical museum intern. I applied for an internship at MAAS after a guest lecture by one of the Museum’s curators, who encouraged anyone with an interest in the communication of history or science to apply.
The guitar is a slab-board electric guitar, with a bolt-on neck. The headstock and neck is maple, and the fret-board is rosewood. The Fender decal is original 'spaghetti' style. It is a 22 fret neck with original clay dot inlays. The tremolo is synchronised and the machine heads are nickel Kluson. Three single-coil pickups with a three-way switch, two tone and one volume control. The pick-guard is triple layered mint. The colour of the body is Dakota Red. It has severe road-wear.

A Bombora Boon: The Powerhouse Museum Acquires The Atlantics’ Guitar and Drum

August 29, 2019

Damian McDonald
Imagine being a working-class kid from Sydney’s suburbs, and the second car you ever bought was a Ferrari. But instead of being a rev-head, you were an aspiring rock muso. And the Ferrari was not a precision made, top-of-the-line spots car, but a Fender Stratocaster, with exactly the same specs as Formula One musos were using.