St Matthew’s @ Albury

The non indigenous culture in Australia is comparatively recent. I am getting interested in our older buildings. In Albury I went in and had a look around St Matthew’s church. I particularly enjoy stained glass and the other art in these buildings.

Three architects contributed to the current building. Edmund Blackett, created the earliest parts of the building in 1857-59. William Boles completed the original building in 1876 with the chancel, and Ian O’Connor designed the rebuild after fire gutted it in 1991.

Below I have included pics of stained glass, a couple of the modern stations of the cross and some modern inclusions.

 

The Changeover @ Australian Parliament House

11 February – 18 May 2016

There is a delightful pop up exhibition upstairs at the Australian Parliament House to reflect on the 50^th anniversary of the introduction of decimal currency to Australia. It has wall panels featuring the delightful cartoon figure of Dollar Bill and his devotion to educating Australians about the new currency system. There is an abundance of ephemera used to engage the broader public and address issues of understanding and commitment to the project.

The exhibition has family board games, cups, glasses, posters and a single record of a jingle. As expected there are copies of the first sets of coins that were issued with some of the souvenir packs included. The exhibition is created by the Royal Australian Mint. Below are a set of pics that show some of the elements of the display. The link below is for the APH page for exhibitions.

http://www.aph.gov.au/visit_parliament/parliament_house_art_collection/exhibitions

Treaties and Australia: Reflections on 100 Years @ Australian Parliament House

18 March to 15 May 2016

Another popup exhibition at the Australian Parliament House focuses on the International treaties that Australia has worked with over the last hundred years. The exhibition starts with the Versailles Treaty after World War One and ends with the Free Trade Agreement with China signed last year.

The exhibition has some text on the significance and participants of the treaty which is accompanied by photographs of significant moments and artefacts of various kinds. It is fascinating to be able to see significant treaties we hear about in the news fairly constantly, addressed in their context and see the people involved in the forging of such treaties.

A section of the exhibition that was valuable was a part in which the process of treaty making and adoption by parliament works. Helpful and informative.

The display is on in a hallway with huge windows so the phone pics are of limited value. The link below is for the APH page for exhibitions.

http://www.aph.gov.au/visit_parliament/parliament_house_art_collection/exhibitions

China and ANU – Diplomats adventurers and scholars @ ANU Centre for China in the World

I have been to lectures at the Lotus Hall at the front of the China and the World Centre at the ANU. I heard of an exhibition at the centre and my journey to find it unpacked a delightful building down behind the hall in which there is a gallery. The exhibition is titled China and ANU – Diplomats adventurers and scholars. The content of the display tracks the relationship between the major figures Australia’s diplomatic connections with China during the 20th Century.
The ANU has had a long and impressive involvment in this field. Many of the heroes have been either working at the ANU or returned to play significant roles at the ANU after time in China. The exhibition is text rich and has lots of remarkable correspondence between the major participants. Morrison, Eggleston, Copland and Fitzgerald are the main characters and their roles are well explained through text panels, letters and pictures.
I love these types of small scale finely focussed historical exhibitions and I love it when they are developed from high quality sources like this one is. Some pics and gallery stuff below.

Magna Carta @ High Court of Australia

What more appropriate location for an exhibition on the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta than the foyer of the High Court of Australia. The exhibition is a fun combination of a replica text with lots of banners with clear text and cartoon story panels.It was also accompanied by some fun models and a wooden panel in which you can take a selfie in a hole – a fun thing.
The exhibition is small but has solid information in it and is not overwhelming to read.
Below are some pics and a copy of the flyer.

Behind the Lines 2014 @ Museum of Australian Democracy

For a political junkie like me this exhibition is loads of fun. The best 80 political cartoons of the last year are on walls with brief explanatory notes about creator and context. I always admire cartoonists for their ability to cull down the daily political carry on into a single insightful image. Cartooning in Australia is a competitive field and it produces some remarkably talented people and product.

Eighty samples chosen by some criteria from a craft that produces each year, many cartoons each day in many media outlets. They are a funny and disturbing set.  I could not get through them all in an hour so I will call in when I go to MOAD for other reasons during the year.  These cartoons stay on display for the year. There is an inexpensive paperback book available with the set iin them.

The website for the exhibition is below:

http://behindthelines.moadoph.gov.au/2014

A few samples are below: