Ben Apfelbaum

LINEAR : LINES RESONATING WITH MEANING @ THE POWERHOUSE

Now showing at the Powerhouse Museum is its new exhibition LINEAR, an exploration of the significance of line and lineage  within Indigenous narratives and practices.

LINEAR brings together commissioned artworks amplifying the theme as well as objects from the Powerhouse collection.

Designed by  Jacob Nash, a Murri man and Head of Design at Bangarra Dance Theatre, the exhibition explores themes of songline through stories, content and work from artists including Lorraine Connelly-Northey, Marie Clarke, Mikaela Jade, Nicole Monks, Glenda Nicholls, Wayne Quilliam, Lucy Simpson, Bernard Singelton, Lynette Wallworth and Vicky West. 

An Augmented RTeality (AR) app has been designed by Mikaela Jade, a Cabrogal woman and founder of Indigital which encourages storytelling to bring to life ancient culture and stories told by the voices of traditional  knowledge holders.

Immersive VR experience COLLISIONS by Lynette Wallworth into the world of Indigenous elder Nyarri Nyarri Morgan and the Martu people and the catastrophic collision between the devastating collision between his traditional world and his experience of nuclear testing in the South Australian desert.

There are also a number of exhibition pieces which show how indigenous art utilises modern materials such as POSSUM SKIN CLOAK: CANOE TREE  by Lorraine Connelly-Northey who used corrugated iron as a canvas for her work.

A series of images by photographer Wayne Quillian documents contemporary indigenous ceremonies across Australia utilising contemporary digital cameras which contrast with vintage indigenous photographs taken by a giant bellows camera from the museum’s Tyrrell collection.

A highlight of the objects on display include the wap (harpoon) used by Murrandooo Yanner to kill the crocodiles which was at the centre of his High Court challenge, Yanner versus Easton, which upheld the right of indigenous people to hunt as part of native title rights for indigenous people.

At the core of the exhibition is Ngarinyin Elder David Mowaljariai’s visual map of lines that link Australia together, culturally, visually and physically.

Indigenous guides will be present daily throughout the exhibition’s tenure to interpret and add depth and meaning to the objects and art on display.

The exhibition runs until the 30th June 2020 at the Powerhouse Museum.

https://maas.museum/powerhouse-museum/

Featured image- Wayne Quilliam and his contemporary ceremonies photos. All pics 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 Treborland. 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.