Task Eternal

Developed over four years, Task Eternal is an expansive and immersive exhibition tracing humanity’s enduring quest to defy gravity, take flight and journey into space – from First Nations sky knowledges and early aviation to cutting-edge aerospace innovation, ethics and speculative futures.

Task Eternal brings together over 600 objects, including items from the Powerhouse Collection and loans from leading local and international science and cultural institutions including the British Museum, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, space agencies and start-ups across 12 countries — including the USA, UK, Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, Japan, Thailand, Korea and India — alongside 16 major new artist commissions by Australian and international artists.

The exhibition’s design has been developed in partnership with acclaimed Beijing-based OPEN Architecture, led by Li Hu and Huang Wenjing. Drawing inspiration from Ted Chiang’s science fiction short story The Tower of Babylon, the exhibition invites visitors on an ascending journey through four acts — Skyward, Power, Off-Earth and The Return — before returning them to Earth. A newly commissioned essay by Chiang will be featured throughout the exhibition.

As a museum of applied arts and sciences, Powerhouse has long stood at the intersection of technology, creativity and community. Task Eternal amplifies this legacy by rejecting a single authoritative narrative and platforming a plurality of voices — from astronauts, artists and engineers to Elders, scientists and speculative writers. It reflects the institution’s ongoing commitment to collaboration, innovation and access, and its belief that museums must work in the service of community and industry as repositories of knowledge and as active sites of cultural exchange and critique.