Ben Apfelbaum

EUCALYPTUSDOM EXHIBITION @ POWERHOUSE MUSEUM

The Powerhouse Museum is playing tribute to our most overlooked and unappreciated tree, the Eucalyptus gumtree.  Eucalyptusdom emphasises our cultural history and ever changing relationship with the gumtree, from the relationship between eucalypts and Indigenous Australians, the significance of the Federation arts and crafts movement to the human impact on the eucalypt today. 

Eucalyptusdom presents over 400 objects from the Powerhouse’s collection alongside 17 newly commissioned works by creative practitioners working across the fields of design, architecture, film and applied arts. 

The Museum’s reverence for the gumtree goes all the way back to the Garden Palace  22 September 1882 fire.  

Mention is also made of May Gibbs gumnut twins Bib and Bub. 

Another highlight is a display of women’s fashion inspired by the gumtree.

The exhibition has been designed collaboratively by Australian architect Richard Laplastrier AO, S.J.B Architects, Jack Gillmer, Adam Haddow and Vania Contreras with a soundscape by James Sheldon and lighting designer Nick Schlieper.

The exhibition runs until the 28th August, 2022.

 

Article and photos by Ben Apfelbaum

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborlang. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, United States, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication. To celebrate the opening of a permanent Photography Gallery, the State Library of New South Wales selected 400 shots from its archive of over 2,000,000 images to display in the new gallery. An image of mine was plucked out of the multi million photo archive to be part of the inaugural exhibition.