sacred painted tree trunks stand upright in a dark room
Program

Eucalyptusdom

Exhibition
Ended 28 Aug 2022
Ultimo

The exhibition took its title from a 1930s text by Edward F Swain, one of Australia’s earliest conservationists, and was called Eucalyptusdom. It reckoned with our cultural history and our ever-changing relationship with the eucalypt.

The exhibition presented more than 400 objects from the Powerhouse Collection, alongside 17 works that were newly commissioned for the event. These works were created by creative practitioners in the fields of design, architecture, film, applied arts, and performance.

Large Print Guide

eucalyptusdom title sits on a wall in a neon green light
A tall white curtain hangs with patterns of foliage seen through the transparent fabric. A blurred silhouetted figures stands in front.
Four screens with images of trees and the first two with text overlaid. To the right a large slab on wood stands upright with white text written on it.
A collection of timbres in different brown shades and shapes laid out on a table with more sitting above on a shelf.
sacred painted tree trunks stand upright in a dark room
A glass pyramid seen side on with a glass globe inside filled half way with yellow oil.
Gallery image
Thin glass tubes, one with a bulb shape with yellow oil inside.
Rectangle planks of timber stand in series. The planks have writing to indicate the specimen type.
Four pieces of timbre, three rectangular and one circular stand on a shelf.
Four large water colour paintings of eucalyptus leaves. A blurred figure stands in front of the far right image.
Four large water colour paintings of eucalyptus leaves. A blurred figure stands in front of the far right image.
A collection of timbre furniture including a chair, pillars, and engravings.
The sculpture is comprised of two parts - Wunhakali (Other Side) and Black Light House (Gurrnjann Djarratawun Wanga). Copper elements are held together with copper wire. Sculpture requires 240V power GPO.

Eucalyptusdom explored the eucalypt’s emergence as a symbol of Australian identity in post-Federation Australia. The exhibition drew on the museum’s comprehensive design and applied arts collection, ceramics, furniture, and a sledge made of spotted gum that went with Sir Douglas Mawson to Antarctica.

‘We have subconscious glimpses of inner qualities in these trees and they lay a momentary spell upon us, but there remains yet to come an acceptance of the full glory of the Eucalyptusdom which is the especial heritage of this stranger land.’
Edward Harold Fulcher Swain, NSW Forestry Commission, 1938

Embedded Artist – Agatha Gothe-Snape

‘Eucalyptusdom reckons with our ever-changing relationship with the Eucalypyt.’
Agatha Gothe-Snape, Powerhouse Embedded Artist. Commissioned and Produced by the Powerhouse.

Podcast – In Relation

In Relation is a five-part podcast series hosted by Agatha Gothe-Snape and Emily McDaniel that brings together artists, curators, and researchers to share lessons from their work with trees. Connected to the 2021-22 Powerhouse exhibition Eucalyptusdom, episodes address spectres and sentinels, resistance and resilience, vitality, identity and alchemy. The conversations explore the relationships between humans and trees, ecosystems and sustainability, culture and Country.

Equinox

The performance of Equinox, created by Eucalyptusdom artist Jane Sheldon, marked a ceremonial transition, reawakening the exhibition space after a period of rest. This exhibition has since closed.

This work for two sopranos and electronics took Danielle Blau’s poem The Vernal Equinox Story as a setting. A finalist in Australia’s 2020 Peter Porter Poetry Prize, it employed recurrent palindromes and was full of axes of symmetry — equators — an echo of the twice-annual symmetry of the Earth’s hemispheres in relation to the sun’s light at each Equinox. Sheldon’s composition filled the text with musical mirrors and visual axes of symmetry.

Sheldon is an acclaimed Australian-American soprano and composer who specialises in the creation and performance of exploratory chamber music. Her original work Eucalyptus Wind Rose was created as the soundscape for Eucalyptusdom.

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