The bright, happy colours of the fanned paper sculptures in Li Hongbo’s work Gun No. 1 (2016) would not be out of place at a seven-year-old’s birthday party. But appearances are deceiving. The underlying structures of these ephemeral decorations are solid paper cutouts in the shape of bullets, hand-held pistols, and shoulder-mounted semi-automatic weapons. The rainbow […]
In her six-minute video animation, I give you a mountain (2018), the artist Joan Ross takes us on a ride through the Enlightenment. A journey back in time to the origins of the modern museum, we slowly progress through mossy grottoes and caves filled with exotic objects and creatures. Along the way, we are introduced […]
In William Kentridge’s Breathe (2008) a dancing figure, drawn in black India ink, pirouettes across the pages of an old book. Using the nineteenth century technology of flip book animation, Kentridge (1955-) makes the image come alive with each turn of a page, creating a 34-second animation that makes us think about the differences between […]
Exposed organs, popping eyeballs, and the lumpy, snaking texture of a brain might not be a sight you’d like to start the day with. However, for those in the medical profession, understanding what goes on under the skin is often essential to providing proper health care. Historically, doctors often used cadavers to provide insights into […]
Once a ‘sleepy hollow’, Glen Innes in northern NSW became a ‘scene of unparalleled excitement’ when tin was discovered in the district in the 1870s. There was a huge influx of miners and ‘hotels were thronged with eager and excited visitors from all parts of the world.’ ‘Shops of all descriptions sprang into existence.’ As […]
Handmade of high-quality fabrics and in the typical style of the period, this pleated grey bonnet was one of Martha Ann Cotterell’s (née Tarrant) (1825-1891) most prized possessions. Martha grew up in the middle of London, where she met Thomas Cotterell (1825-1903). On their wedding day in 1848, Martha was dressed to the latest fashion, […]
While today it’s considered a staple of men’s formal attire, the bow tie has more humble origins. Inspired by the scarves which Croatian mercenaries tied around their necks during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), the style was soon adopted in French fashion as the ‘cravat.’ In the 18th Century, a man named Beau Brummell – […]
Do you remember the excitement of a new toy? Australia in the 1960s was another world. In an era which was marked by the excitement of technological innovation, particularly the ‘Space Race’ mission to land on the moon, innovation was the key to childhood joy. The streets of Australia’s small towns rang out with children’s […]
Wounded at the end of the bloody campaign at Gallipoli, Lieutenant Leith MC was evacuated to a hospital ship. Anchored offshore at Cape Helles, Leith sketched his view. What he recorded was not just the landscape but the final weeks of the failed allied campaign at Gallipoli to crush Germany’s ally, the Ottoman Empire. Near […]
Thomas Nichols of Bonshaw, a small town on the border of NSW and Queensland, must have been a patient man. Crafted in 1917, this rope required a process that took him several weeks. Made from the skin of a bullock owned by Len Mott of Llangothlin, a town 150km south of Bonshaw, the first step […]
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