MUSE Issue 13, March 2016

Issue 13, March 2016 Detail from a 4th century BC South Italian wine Detail from a 4th century BC South Italian wine jug with imagery of a Persian. Nicholson Museum.

Magazine of Sydney University Museums In this issue

02 Alpha and Omega 17 Tombs of time 32 Rites of passage Opening with a unique flower, Pottery from an Early Two students take a close an exhibition in the Nicholson Bronze Age cemetery in look at Indonesian cultures Museum honours the old and Cyprus reveals a great through exquisite objects in Towards a looks forward to the new. experimentation with form. the Macleay Museum. new museum 04 Dušan Marek: 21 Microscopic abstractions 34 Making history art/film post 1960 Images from under the All the news on University David Ellis. Photograph We explore the multitalented microscope rendered of Sydney museums: talks, A word from the Director by Martin Ho Czech exile and surrealist’s large form intriguing works acquisitions, VIP visits, new painting and filmmaking. by an emerging artist. staff, overseas trips, theatre.

08 Gene genius 24 Visions for the Macleay 36 Find your muse Gregor Mendel uncovered Architecture students apply For your diary: everything We had an extraordinary year in 2015 As part of their studio curriculum, our own a whole new scientific field in their considerable skills to that’s coming up at Sydney on so many fronts. architecture students were asked to propose the humble garden pea. We devise stunning designs for University Museums over conceptual designs for the new museum. celebrate his work. a new museum. the next few months. With more than 120,000 visitors – a 15 percent They certainly rose to the challenge: see increase on 2014 – it was a record year. page 24 for some of their brilliant ideas. Most notably, we secured significant funding 11 Stone age Stanley knife 28 Grave secrets Artefacts from our prehistoric Roman marble funerary stones for the new Chau Chak Wing Museum. This We will keep you up to date with the past reveal a shared humanity: offer a glimpse into lives long will see the collections of the Macleay and development of the Chau Chak Wing Museum developing cognition and skills past and encourage us to Nicholson Museums and the University Art in future issues of and, from March, on Muse that could be passed on. contemplate our own mortality. Collection consolidated into the one site in a our website: sydney.edu.au/museums refurbishment of the Macleay and Edgeworth David Buildings along with a contemporary Two new exhibitions are opening at the 14 Women in Power 31 Donations extension to link the two. Nicholson Museum. Sea and sky: art in ancient Chancellor Belinda Hutchinson Sydney University Museums Cyprus opens in February while Alpha to AM’s speech, read by alumna acknowledges the help This critical infrastructure will transform Omega: the beginning and the end opens in Anne Summers, to open an and contributions of our From the cover: detail from a 4th century BC South Italian the way we use the University’s cultural March (see page 2). important exhibition. many supporters. wine jug with imagery of a Persian. Nicholson Museum and scientific collections in teaching and NM97.185. Photo: Carl Bento. research and greatly expand our capacity for At the Art Gallery, Women in Power continues One of the objects from the exhibition Alpha & Omega. community engagement through exhibitions until 8 April when it will be followed by a See story page 2-3. and related programs. Visitors to the new survey of late works by surrealist artist museum will see far more of the collections Dušan Marek (see page 4), opening on 18 April. than they can at present. Opening at the Macleay in conjunction with Sydney University Museums Macleay Museum Muse edited by Michael Turner. Produced by the continuing Written in Stone exhibition is Comprising the Macleay Museum, Macleay Building, Gosper Lane Marketing and Communications, the University Architects for the project will be Sydney firm Rapid Prototyping – Models of Climate Change Nicholson Museum and University Art Gallery (off Science Road) of Sydney, March 2016. 16/5400 +61 2 9036 5253 ISSN 1449‑0420 ABN 15 211 513 464 Johnson Pilton Walker. We selected these by PhD candidate Kate Dunn. Open Monday to Friday, 10am to 4.30pm and +61 2 9351 5646 (fax) CRICOS 00026A architects because of their experience in the first Saturday of every month 12 to 4pm [email protected] Closed on public holidays. designing museums (including the National Please check our website for details: General admission is free. Nicholson Museum Forest Stewardship Council Portrait Gallery in Canberra) and the adaptive – sydney.edu.au/museums In the southern entrance to the Quadrangle (FSC®) is a globally recognised Become a fan on Facebook and +61 2 9351 2812 certification overseeing all fibre re-use of heritage buildings. They enjoy follow us on Twitter. +61 2 9351 7305 (fax) sourcing standards. This provides [email protected] guarantees for the consumer that a strong international reputation and are David Ellis products are made of woodchips Sydney University Museums Administration from well‑managed forests, other accustomed to working on projects valued at Director, Museums and Cultural Engagement +61 2 9351 2274 University Art Gallery controlled sources and reclaimed more than $20 million. We are delighted to +61 2 9351 2881 (fax) War Memorial Arch, the Quadrangle material with strict environmental, [email protected] +61 2 9351 6883 economical and social standards. welcome them to the project. +61 2 9351 7785 (fax) Education and Public Programs [email protected] To book a school excursion, an adult education tour or a University heritage tour +61 2 9351 8746 [email protected]

1 Alpha and Omega –

As the University prepares for its new is applied to still-wet plaster. As the plaster dries, the pigments in the paint flagship museum, an alphabetically are absorbed, ensuring that the colours arranged exhibition comprises an elegy remain vivid.

to the past even as it anticipates the The style of the painting is future, writes Michael Turner. impressionistic and typical of the time of the emperor Nero (54-68AD), a period that fits nicely with the redecoration necessary in many villas around the Bay of Naples following the earthquake of 62AD and before the eruption of Vesuvius in 79AD.

Cut – some may say vandalised – from a much larger scene on the lower zone of Alpha and Omega: The Beginning and the End the foothills of the Apennines on the border a painted wall, it shows what appears to opens in the Nicholson Museum in March. It between Tuscany and Umbria (Book 5.6, Letter be an iris albicans, a type of iris common will be the last major exhibition in the museum to Domitius Apollinaris). in the Bay of Naples area even today. before we move to the Chau Chak Wing Museum in 2018. In his villa is a wall decorated with trees and In his Natural History (Book 21. 40-42), birds. In the garden are clipped box hedges Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) describes the The exhibition explores things mysterious and obelisks, bushes cut in the shape of iris as being prized for both its exquisite and beautiful across all three collections: the animals, beds of acanthus, a rose garden, perfume and its root, which was used Nicholson Museum, the Macleay Museum and plane trees linked by garlands of ivy, fruit in medicine and for the making of the University Art Gallery. Each letter of the trees, water features and marble seats. There ointments and perfumes. He writes that Greek alphabet will introduce an object or are contemporary descriptions of the Roman the Illyrian iris was multicoloured like objects with stories to tell. countryside in Virgil’s Georgics and Eclogues. the rainbow, hence the name: in Greek Indeed in the 17th and early 18th centuries, mythology, Iris is the winged female To begin at the beginning … no self-respecting garden designer in England personification of the rainbow. would set to work without a copy of Pliny in one * alpha for ἄνθος: anthos , a flower hand, Virgil in the other. Michael Turner is Senior Curator at the Nicholson Museum. αWith their flowers and trees, fountains and Painted on plaster, this picture of a flower is Above: Fragment of a Roman wall painting birds, wall paintings are a haunting reminder of nearly 2000 years old, and comes from the wall * of an iris, 60-79 AD anthos: as in agapanthus (the flower how beautiful Roman gardens must once have of a villa such as Pliny’s. Volcanic inclusions Nicholson Museum of love); acanthus (the sharp flower); NM80.49. Photo: been. Added to this visual feast are the writings in the plaster suggest that the villa was in, or Carl Bento. anthology (literally, a collection of Pliny the Younger (61-113 AD), who describes close to, Pompeii or Herculaneum. It has been of flowers). in detail his villa and gardens at Tifernum in painted in the true fresco style by which paint

2 3 Dušan Marek: art/film post 1960 –

Surrealist, Imagine the plight of a 23-year-old that Marek was referencing an Czechoslovakian refugee, forced exotic repertoire of surrealist visionary, painter, to flee his homeland in the wake iconography to express his filmmaker, outsider. of the Stalinist occupation in 1948 sense of dislocation, alienation and who, after many dangers, and homelessness – a message Guest curator adventures and dislocations, arrives that failed to resonate among Stephen Mould in Australia, eventually settling in prospering postwar Australians. Adelaide. He knows little of that city introduces an except its reputation as the “city of During the early 1950s, Marek exhibition of works churches”, which plants in his mind lived a peripatetic existence, the an erroneous connection with the recognition he sought eluding by multitalented city of Prague. him, though he painted quite Czech artist and prolifically and also began to The refugee is a painter, who make experimental films. Finally, exile Dušan Marek. was born in one of the most despairing of making further beautiful and evocative areas headway in Australia, Marek of Czechoslovakia, the “Czech relocated to Papua New Guinea Paradise”, an area rich in magical in 1954, where he lived for nearly landscapes and rock formations five years. This may have been a littered with castles and ancient necessary fallow period – Marek ruins. The artist has studied in was only intermittently active Prague, imbibing the Prague as an artist, and completed few school of surrealism from teachers works during this time. including celebrated painter and illustrator Frantisek Tichy. A new direction unfolded in Marek’s life in 1959 when he returned to Marek’s impressions on arriving Adelaide – releasing the creative in Adelaide in late 1948 were not block that had characterised recorded, although his subsequent his time in New Guinea. The disillusionment about his reception Australian landscape began to by the local art community is feature in his work in an entirely well known. new way. The overtly surrealist iconography of his earlier work did Marek’s surrealist calling not entirely disappear, but became card associated him with more discreetly incorporated an ideology that was highly into landscapes in an abstract, suspect in postwar Australia expressionistic style. and his early exhibitions caused considerable controversy – Marek’s During this period Marek also Above: Dušan Marek Pharaoh’s Paradise, 1970 uncompromising attitudes and resumed filmmaking, producing University of Sydney philosophies failed to win him a series of animated short films Art Collection.

friends or supporters. that share many synergies with his Donated by James Agapitos painting output at that time. This and Ray Wilson through the Australian Government’s In retrospect, it may be seen culminated later in the decade with Cultural Gifts Program 2005.

4 5 Left: Image of Dušan Marek in Cobweb on a Parachute.

Above (clockwise): Film still two feature-length surrealist films: from And the Word was Made This exhibition will present a selection of As a counterpoint, the exhibition also Cobweb on a parachute (1966-7) and Flesh (1969-70); Film stills Marek’s works that focus on his engagement incorporates a selection of Marek’s most from Adam and Eve (1962); The And the word was made flesh (1969-70). blinding scene from Cobweb on with the Australian landscape, including important films, including the award‑winning a Parachute (1966-67). several from his groundbreaking exhibition animated Adam and Eve (1962) and Cobweb Subsequently, Marek’s painting output in 1963 at the Bonython Gallery, Adelaide, on a Parachute (1966-7), which was became characterised by an intense where he presented a series of abstractions, perhaps the first full-length, surrealist film engagement with the landscape, often many painted on metal and inspired by the produced in Australia. referenced by philosophical, religious landscape of South Australia’s Coorong, which and spiritual resonances. His surrealist he visited often, and which came to figure Dušan Marek was a virtuosic, multifarious sensibility fused with the mystical power significantly in his work. artist, a loner and a maverick. He is unique of the landscape to create a body of in having brought to these shores a surrealist work unique in Australian art. There are also works from 1973-82 when the sensibility that he developed in Prague, one artist lived in Margate, Tasmania, a rural area of the wellsprings of European surrealism. In recent years, Marek’s early works outside of Hobart, punctuated by a fellowship Using this heritage to navigate the antipodean have attracted attention as the history at the Australian National University in landscape, Marek has created a unique legacy of surrealism in the Australian context Canberra in 1977. Marek returned to Adelaide that is ripe for reassessment. has been explored. His works painted in 1982, where he spent the remainder of his prior to 1955 have been increasingly life, producing several important series of Stephen Mould is Chair of Opera Production exhibited and written about. Works paintings, notably Homage to the Sun (1984) at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He created since 1960, however, are which was a response to the disastrous teaches operatic studies and conducting. relatively unknown, and little critical bushfires in the Adelaide Hills. attention has been paid to this aspect of Marek’s oeuvre since his death in 1993.

6 7 Gene genius –

Scientist Gregor Mendel is On 8 February and 8 March 1865 – some 150 years ago – Gregor acclaimed as the founder Mendel read a paradigm-shifting of modern genetics. As paper to the Natural History Society of Brno, now in the Czech the Macleay Museum gets Republic. At those two meetings, set to celebrate his work, Mendel reported the results and a radical explanation for eight years Frank Nicholas considers of experimental crosses among regarded for wool production and how?” A few years later, in inbred varieties of garden pea. that pioneering farmers from as 1843, a 21-year-old Johann Mendel its lasting significance. British King, a stud ram far away as Australia employed entered the monastery as a novice from H T Edwards’s property Burnima, in Monaro, NSW Intriguingly, neither Mendel nor agents to purchase rams from monk, taking the name Gregor. (HP83.60), Macleay Museum. any of the scientists who read his these studs. The rams were walked paper in the decades following more than 600 kilometres to After a few years in the monastery, its publication realised the Hamburg then shipped to Sydney, mainly teaching in schools, universality of his results and his from where they were distributed Mendel was sent to the University explanation for them. It was not to Merino studs, playing a major of Vienna where, among other until 1900 – 16 years after Mendel’s role in establishing the Australian subjects, he studied probability death – that scientists began to wool industry. and combinations – knowledge appreciate his work. that was to be central to The Moravian stud breeders interpreting his own data. How did Mendel become were so enthusiastic that in 1814 interested in heredity? Part of the they formed the Moravian Sheep At the monastery Mendel was answer takes us to central Europe Breeders Society that was, in given the use of the garden and in the early decades of the 19th effect, a scientific society chiefly a glasshouse built especially century – and Merino sheep. The concerned with the mysteries of for conducting plant breeding stud farms of the prized sheep in inheritance. By 1837, Abbot Napp experiments. Mendel challenged the regions of Saxony, Bohemia of the Brno Augustinian monastery himself to develop a “generally and Moravia (between Dresden (and sheep farms) was leading applicable law governing the and Vienna) were so highly discussions in the society on the formation and development questions of “what is inherited of hybrids”.

8 9 Stone Age Model of a pea plant used in teaching biological sciences, Macleay Museum. Photo: Stanley Knife Carl Bento, 2015. –

Starting with 34 different varieties of determines a particular trait. Given Join us at the Macleay Museum the garden pea, he soon narrowed this assumption, it is possible to for the inaugural “Mendel Day” his experimental resources down to predict the ratio of offspring with on 8 March 2016 as the Genetics seven inbred strains, each of which particular traits that will result from Society of Australasia and was pure-breeding for a particular a mating if we know the elements geneticists around the world host set of traits that could be scored that exist in both parents. events to salute Mendel’s bold Implements more than half a million easily, for example, difference in hypothesis – a hypothesis that has the colour of the seed coat. The truly remarkable thing is that it enabled us to make so much sense years old held in the Nicholson Museum took more than a century (and many out of so much biological confusion, Over the course of eight years, Nobel Prizes) before the nature and and to make so much progress in reflect human cognitive development, Mendel collected a large body of function of Mendel’s “elements” feeding, clothing and improving the data from a formidable array of became properly understood. health of humanity. writes Patricia Anderson. crosses of two or more of his inbred strains, involving the evaluation of This is a wonderful example of the Frank Nicholas is Emeritus Professor 24,034 pea plants. scientific method: developing a of Animal Genetics at the Faculty Above: NM62.426 Undated leaf-shaped flint hypothesis then testing predictions of Veterinary Science. knife from Cambridgeshire; its surface, with consistent pressure flaking on both The “law” that Mendel developed is from it. If the predictions are useful, sides and along its edges, suggests a best described as a bold hypothesis: the hypothesis is useful and can Solutrean artefact created between 22,000 and 20,000 years ago. assume that each gamete (pollen be used, irrespective of whether grain or egg cell) comprises a set of anything is known about the actual elements, each of which somehow nature of what is assumed to exist.

10 11 stones, axes, scrapers, flakes, burins, A similar hand axe, flaked from suggest a Solutrean artefact (that is, sickles and chisels. Broadly speaking, toffee-coloured flint from the one created between 22,000 and the prehistoric maker began with a Fayum region in lower Egypt, is 20,000 years ago) (NM62.426). stone core (a cobble or pebble) from most likely Neolithic but exhibits which flakes could be struck. the same characteristics. Its Polished axes that appeared around particular gloss, a result of age the world in the Neolithic period The technique of precise striking and use, is called patina – one of mark a technological advance that that prepares a core for further those characteristics that reassures partly defines a boundary between refinements is known as a “chaîne archaeologists and collectors that the Mesolithic and Neolithic

NM47.140 NM63.29 opératoire” (or “reduction they are looking at the genuine periods. A striking yellow, thin, sequence”) and the method of article (NM63.29, opposite page). butted flint axe from the Dagger producing flakes from it of a period in Denmark (c. 2800-1700 BC) predetermined shape and size is A small grey flint scraper, possibly (NM48.80) is a good example of a Clockwise from Opposite page: above: NM47.140 View of Lipari, known as the Levallois technique from the Mesolithic period, from tool originally designed to fell trees Small grey part of the (the name derives from a suburb in Long Riston, near Yorkshire, which then became a status symbol flint scraper, Aeolian Islands possibly from of the north east north-west Paris where such shows the characteristic “bulb of used for ritual exchange. Many have the Mesolithic coast of Sicily period; NM63.29 – the volcanic assemblages were discovered). This percussion” (below right) where it been recovered from the lakes and Egyptian axe formation of technique first appeared in the lower has been struck free from a core bogs of Denmark. head; NM63.96 this group of Acheulean handaxe islands created Paleolithic period, and the results and exhibits the concentric ripples in yellow, brown a major source were known as Acheulean tools. that radiate out from it. This is Finally, the museum has an and red jasper, of obsidian that from Selling was traded and one of the characteristic ways in extensive collection of black in Kent, Great used throughout Britain; NM48.80 the central This Acheulean handaxe in yellow, which flint, chert, jasper and other obsidian cores, blades and flakes Yellow, thin, Mediterranean brown and red jasper, from Selling gemmologically related stones (NM62.294.7, below). Obsidian is butted flint from the axe from the Neolithic in Kent, Great Britain, is one of behave when struck or cleaved a volcanic glass from which thin, Dagger period period; inset, in Denmark (c. NM62.294.7 several distinctive examples of (NM47.140, opposite page). razor-sharp blades can be struck. 2800-1700 BC). Obsidian core that period. It has been flaked from Lipari. NM63.96 NM48.80 on both sides to give it a striking The beautifully proportioned Patricia Anderson is a Council symmetry viewed from both leaf-shaped flint knife (page 11) from Member of the Friends of the back and front and it would Cambridgeshire is undated, but its Nicholson Museum. have sat comfortably in the hand surface, which exhibits consistent (NM63.96, opposite page). pressure flaking on both sides and along the entirety of its edges, The global groundswell of interest in polished, largely symbolic and hand axes are known to be at least artefacts from our prehistoric past much-prized jade and hardstone half a million years old, perhaps reveals our shared humanity at a axes of the Neolithic period even older, which would link them time when no written records exist (c.10,000-2500 BC) our ancestors to Homo Erectus. to bear testimony to it. were set on a trajectory of skills that could be passed on by example, even The hand axe is the most useful Indeed, 99 percent of our history before the development of language. implement in the prehistoric toolkit. is prehistoric, which leaves a It is akin to today’s Swiss army knife, lot of humankind’s developing In about 1830, the finds of an and it provides a valuable insight: the apprehension of the world and amateur French archaeologist, capacity for the maker to imagine the skills acquired to negotiate it Jacques Boucher de Crèvecoeur the shape they wished to achieve in completely unmapped – except de Perthes, met with scepticism. the rough piece of stone – a huge of course for stone tools and Alongside evidence of extinct conceptual and aesthetic leap. implements. These tools, which mammals, he had discovered flints The most prized materials were made their first appearance about that had been shaped by humans flint and chert, found as nodules 2.6 million years ago, represent in the gravel of the Somme Valley in or seams in chalk and limestone our earliest attempts to shape the Northern France. deposits. Both can be given a sharp material world. cutting edge by flaking. Yet the scientific frame of reference From the moment our oldest cousins required to prove the depth of The Nicholson Museum holds many in Africa cracked a stone to create their antiquity did not yet exist. striking examples, especially those a chopping or cutting edge to the Archaeology was at the time just a found in Great Britain, Denmark refinements that led to the smoothly budding field of enquiry. Today those and Africa. These include hammer

NM62.294.7

12 13 Chancellor Belinda Hutchinson AM, who was to launch this unique exhibition late last year, was unexpectedly unavailable. This is her speech, which was read on the night by leading feminist, writer and University alumna Dr Anne Summers.

Women in Power –

In celebrating the ascension of And what a great idea to ask women It is during that time that women women’s art, the Women in Power to choose a piece from the Power have really come into their own in exhibition charts a slow revolution collection. I am particularly pleased the art world — in the West, at least in the politics of gender that that my own choice, Labyrinthe — having previously been confined to stubbornly took root in the late Diagonal, by Martha Boto, has the footnotes of art history. 20th century. The profound impact been selected for the cover of the of the women’s movement on catalogue. It is a stunning piece – And not, of course, for any lack of Australian culture is still unfolding industrial and geometric and yet full ability. as a complex and contested legacy. of light and quite mesmerising. The University’s Power Collection – Ladies and gentlemen, I would like My choice was motivated by my from which this exhibition is to commence by acknowledging interest in inspiring women towards sourced – has come a long way since the traditional custodians of this science, technology, engineering its commencement in 1967, with land, the Cadigal people, who have and mathematics. Labyrinthe just three pieces by women. been teaching and learning here for Diagonal is solid proof that these thousands of years. disciplines can be beautiful. Indeed, in the nearly 50 years since then, our society has changed I am delighted to have been asked Indeed this entire exhibition a great deal. By way of example, to open the exhibition, Women in is testimony to the talent and one of my co-selectors for this Power, here at the University Art innovation of women artists, and exhibition is Justice Virginia Bell of Gallery. to their deep empathy for their the High Court of Australia. subjects, whatever they might be. What a wonderful and beautifully It speaks to the breadth and variety A female High Court Justice was curated exhibition. I congratulate of subjects and genres that women sadly unthinkable in 1967. It was [curator] Ann Stephen and her team have tackled in the last 40 years. 20 years later that the first female on their work. High Court Judge in Australia was appointed. And it was to be another

Left: Architect Penelope Seidler AM at the opening of Women in Power with the Helen Frankethaler print, Spoleto, 1972, that she selected from the Power collection. Seidler recalled the association she and her late husband, Harry Seidler, had with the artist. “Harry and I bought her large stained work Hillside for the entry of our Killara house … we later commissioned Helen to design a huge tapestry for the new Hong Kong club that Harry designed and completed in 1984.’

14 15 Rosie Dhawupu Rodji, Mindirr [pandanus palm collecting bag], c. 1984; ochres on pandanus palm, hand- spun bark fibre string and Margaret Dhawupu Gindjimirri, 2 Mindirr (pandanus collecting bags), c. 1984. Selected for the exhibition by Justice Virginia Bell AC.

18 years before a second woman There is a long way still to go. We will be able to bring back the took her seat on the High Court. I This is one of the last exhibitions Power Collection and to display far am pleased that Virginia is in fact that will be seen in this lovely but more of it at any time. the fourth. somewhat limiting space. As many of you will be aware, the University Art The new museum will also provide The reasoning behind her choice of Gallery will close towards the end of custom study rooms to allow pieces by Ramingining women [of next year as we plan for the opening students to access the collections. the Northern Territory] is indicative of the new Chau Chak Wing Museum. of her deep interest in social justice I don’t want to wish the years away, and reconciliation. (The story is on The Museum is a really exciting but I am very much looking forward page 30 of the catalogue.) project. It will bring together the to the opening of the new Museum collections of the Macleay and in 2018 — it will be the start of a Tombs of time Each of the women who chose Nicholson Museums and this Gallery, new era. artworks for this exhibition has in an adaptive reuse of the Macleay – given her reasoning in the pages of and Edgeworth David Buildings. Ladies and gentlemen, I do hope you the catalogue. It really is fascinating enjoy this exhibition. reading. Women’s stories fill these The Chau Chak Wing museum will pages as well as hang on these walls. enable us to truly showcase the Belinda Hutchinson AM is The Nicholson Museum houses material University’s amazing collections. Chancellor of the University of from an important Early Bronze Age They are stories as valid and as well More than 2000 square metres of Sydney; Anne Summers is a leading told as those of any man. They are exhibition space will be available writer, journalist and feminist. cemetery in Cyprus. Dr Craig Barker stories with an additional poignancy for temporary and semi-permanent – that of the struggle to be heard exhibitions. examines items recovered in the 1930s which underlies each and every one, by a former curator. and which is alluded to directly in The temporary exhibition galleries the untitled piece by Barbara Kruger alone will be seven times the size selected by [art historian, Professor] of this gallery. The possibilities for Virginia Spate. what we can do with that space are just wonderful. Above: Fig.1. A Red Polished I Ware lug jug with incised decoration (NM53.164).

16 17 In 1937, Australian-born archaeologist University of Sydney. He would there: the cemetery had undergone James Rivers Barrington Stewart eventually become curator of the excavations by pioneering Cypriot (1913-1962) and his first wife, Eleanor, Nicholson Museum and hold the first archaeologist Porphyrios Dikaios began archaeological excavations Australian professorship of Middle (1904-1971) on behalf of the Cyprus at the Early Bronze Age (c. 2400- Eastern Archaeology. Museum in 1931-2, then a joint 200 BC) cemetery site of Vounous season in 1933 by the National in the northern foothills of the In the 1950s, Stewart and his second Museum of France and the Cyprus Kyrenia mountain range on the wife, Eve, would return to Cyprus Museum directed by Dikaios and Mediterranean island of Cyprus. The to excavate other Bronze Age sites Claude F A Schaeffer (1898-1982). Stewarts noted the site’s proximity in the island’s north. Through his The 1937-8 excavations would see to Turkey across the Mediterranean: work, the Nicholson Museum would Stewart become one of the “On a clear day the Taurus Mountains become one of the world’s foremost pre-eminent Bronze Age scholars in Asia Minor stand like a cloud along centres of Cypriot archaeological of his generation. the northern horizon.” research – the museum’s support of University of Sydney archaeological The cemetery of Vounous (the Working under the aegis of the work at the ancient theatre associated prehistoric settlement British School at Athens, the of Nea Paphos continues this has never been located) is close excavations mark the first time tradition today. to the village of Bellapais, made an Australian archaeologist had famous in 1957 by novelist and travel led a formal expedition anywhere Stewart was particularly interested writer Lawrence Durrell in The Bitter in the Mediterranean. Although in the development of early ceramic Lemons of Cyprus. then based in Cambridge, Stewart traditions. The burials at Vounous would return to Sydney in 1947 had already proved important The village is dominated by Fig 3: Bellapais Abbey, North Cyprus, where the to take up a teaching role at the even before the Stewarts worked the nearby ruins of the 13th Stewarts located their dig workhouse in 1937-8.

century Abbaye de la Belle Paix floated off the chamber’s floor and undertaken by Cypriot potters in (Bellapais Abbey) [see Fig. 3]. moved from their original position. this era. So-called Red Polished pottery was common; it was hand- The Stewarts excavated 84 Early Tomb 154 was dated to the Early made, distinguished by a dark, Cypriot rock-cut tombs in two burial Cypriot I phase (c.2400-2150 BC) red-brown surface slip, the colour mounds over 18 months. Setting by the excavators, who noted that of which was derived from oxidising up their workspace in the Great it seemed to contain only a single conditions during firing. The surface Hall of the Abbey, they set to work burial (published as a male but the was usually highly polished. recording the finds Cypriot workmen bones were in bad condition). cleared from the tombs. A Red-Polished I-II spouted milk- The body was interred with a bowl (NM53.181), designated tomb The finds from just one of the homogenous group of ceramics find no. 19 [Fig. 2] was excavated. tombs indicate the vibrancy of Early items. The Stewarts noted the high Although these have become known Cypriot pottery traditions. Tomb proportion of small pots compared as milk bowls, there is no definite 154 was a typical burial of the era: a with other tombs in the cemetery. knowledge of their actual function. 2.5 metre sloping dromos (entrance) In their 1950 publication of the leading into a sealed bedrock cut excavation, James and Eleanor Stewart would write later in his chamber, about 2.7m by 2.35m. The record 39 items from Tomb 154. corpus of Cypriot pottery: “I have

Fig. 2: A Red Polished chamber had been disturbed by taken the name from Sir John Myres, I-II Ware spouted water – many items were covered The tomb group reflects the range who believed that these bowls were milk‑bowl excavated from Tomb 154 (NM53.181). with silt and pieces seemingly had of experimentation with form used in dairy-farming for separating

18 19 Microscopic abstractions –

Emerging artist Nick De Lorenzo is exploring the Macleay Museum’s intriguing microscopic images – for maximum impact in his work.

Fig.4 A reproduction of Eleanor Stewart’s illustration of the red-crossed bowl now in the Nicholson Museum (NM53.169), originally published in the 1950 excavation report.

cream and milk. The tubular illustration of the vessel in the earlier fieldwork. Stewart had side-spouts would enable the milk 1950 excavation report [Fig 4]. arranged to bring it to Australia to be drawn off without disturbing The three vessels show the wide from the Cyprus Museum in 1956 to the creamy surface.” range of shapes of Red Polished publish, but had not completed by Ware created by potters of the era. the time of his death in 1962. A Red Polished I Ware ear-lug pot Objects from Vounous are displayed (NM53.164), designated tomb find no. These and other finds from the in the Nicholson Museum’s new 32 [Fig. 1] demonstrates the creative 1937-8 season were scattered to exhibition The Sea and the Sky: incision decoration of the era: collections around the globe, and Ancient Cypriot art. geometric lines and dot patterns the Nicholson Museum material across the top of the body, with a was donated by Cambridge’s Craig Barker is a Cypriot blackened surface over the neck Museum of Archaeology and archaeologist who directs the and part of the body. Anthropology in 1952. University of Sydney’s excavations at Paphos. He is Manager, Education A distinctive shallow Red Polished Today the Nicholson Museum holds a and Public Programs at Sydney Ware red-crossed bowl (NM53.169) substantial amount of pottery from University Museums. designated tomb find no. 12 [Fig. 5], the Vounous cemetery site, not just was so exquisite that the Stewarts from the Stewarts’ excavations, but published an extraordinary colour also from Dikaios and Schaeffer’s

Fig.5. This Red Polished Ware bowl (NM53.169) is distinguished by its painted red-cross Nick De Lorenzo, pattern that hints at Microscopic the linear creativity Abstraction #7 explored by Cypriot (HP90-35-103). potters and painters Unique silver in coming millennia. gelatin print and gold leaf on paper, 55x75cm, 2015.

20 21 Clockwise from right: Nick De Lorenzo, Microscopic Abstractions #17 (Positive) (HP90-35-471), unique silver gelatin print and gold leaf on paper, 75x105cm, 2015

Microscopic Abstractions #17 (Negative) (HP90-35- 471), unique silver gelatin print and gold leaf on paper, 75x105cm, 2015

Composite image of lantern slide HP90-35-583 from the Historic Photography Collection

Microscopic Abstractions #8 (HP90-35-103), unique silver gelatin print and gold leaf on paper, 55x75cm, 2015.

When I started research with exist between abstraction and While the photo’s indexicality the Macleay Museum’s Historic representation: while they depict a lingers in part, it is fragmented and Photography Collection (a sizeable reality – a micro view of something obscured by the materiality of the archive spanning all sorts of that once existed – without context image itself. As the image is pushed photographic, cultural and social they are beautifully abstract. through various digital, chemical and histories from the late 1840s to the physical manipulations, it reaches a 1960s), I wasn’t really sure what I was These abstract microscopic images point where it holds only a tenuous looking for or what I would find. reflect something distinctively connection to its origins. photographic: the medium’s unique Found imagery, both physical and ability not just to represent reality Many of the lantern slides in the digital, has always played a role in but to visualise what is invisible collection have little or no record my work and, following a suggestion to the naked eye; to capture, of what they depict. Detached from my supervisor, artist Mikala record and transmute to image from their original context and Dwyer, who had recently worked the unseeable. purpose, the initial use and worth with the Macleay’s geology of the photo-object (as a scientific collection, I was interested in seeing The lantern slides are already teaching aid and source material) is the museum’s microscopic images. at a remove from the original diminished and obscured. specimen photographed through Curator Jan Brazier led me through the microscope. I manipulate digital Such slides hold more intrigue some of the Macleay’s vast collection reproductions of the slides in for me, and by repurposing these of lantern slides – a format of Photoshop, print them to acetate images, I hope my work can bring reproducible glass plate transparency and enlarge them onto sensitised a fresh perspective and generate used around the turn of the 20th paper in the darkroom. new purposes for these otherwise century as teaching aids (the overlooked images. PowerPoint presentation of its day). Each step further distances and obscures the final image from Nick De Lorenzo is undertaking I became interested primarily in its initial reality, playing with the a Master of Fine Arts at Sydney microscopic images from the early photograph’s indexicality (the College of the Arts. View his work at days of the University’s Department connection between a photo and www.nickdelorenzo.com or follow of Botany. Microscopic images its subject), in a sense creating new him on Instagram @nicoflasho fit in well with my work as they realities by corroding long-lost ones.

22 23 Visions for the Macleay –

Architecture students have contributed exceptional designs for a new museum in the Macleay Building. Jennifer Ferng reveals several concepts that wowed the judges.

The Faculty of Architecture, Design, The extension would increase the Above: Gloria Neo, Interior perspective. and Planning has begun using museum’s floorspace by 1000 real-world planning projects as square metres. Ferng and Anderson part of the undergraduate studio formulated a simplified design brief curriculum. These design exercises around some of the existing criteria are grounded in the University’s set for the museum extension endeavours to expand learning funded by philanthropist Dr Chau facilities on campus. They are Chak Wing, which is well underway aligned with Strategic Plan initiatives in the design process. that focus on sustained enquiry and community-engaged learning. Students were asked to analyse contemporary museum precedents In Semester 2, 2015, students in and, as a result of these case the second-year architecture studies, propose architectural plans studio examined a range of 20th- and models that included archive century buildings such as hospitals, and collection spaces, an exhibition museums, prisons, and scientific gallery, a café, and a multimedia laboratories to explore how such theatre in their proposed schemes. institutional typologies have changed over time. This project offered specific challenges for these architecture Using the University campus as a site, students, who had to contend with coordinators Dr Jennifer Ferng and designing effective circulation and Dr Sean Anderson asked students public entry for their buildings as to propose conceptual designs for well as provide learning resources a new museum extension in the for fellow students. Right: Alex Prichard, existing Macleay and Edgeworth Interior Spaces Axonometric. David Buildings.

24 25 These student projects present innovative, Karen Lin: In designing an extension Alex Prichard: A deconstructed Dr Jennifer Ferng is a Lecturer in for the existing heritage building cube (below right) provides space the Faculty of Architecture, Design alternative visions of the Macleay Museum (below, 2nd and 3rd from left), and dynamism for the museum’s and Planning and a co-editor of Lin conceived a form constructed exhibition areas. Prichard Architectural Theory Review. and its position on the campus as a from a mechanical steel frame that reinterprets the heritage building could change shape in relationship for a library and study rooms, leading cultural institution. to the activities within. along with storage and offices.

Five staff members involved with the Gloria Neo: Neo sought to stimulate James Feng: Feng’s work University museums – among them visitor experience through (below left), inspired by the Director David Ellis, curators Dr innovative use of the heritage much‑celebrated urban Jude Philp, Michael Turner, Dr Ann structure. As shown in this render architecture of Bilbao, Spain, Stephen, and Power Professor of Art (see page 24), the solid brick walls creates a deliberate visual rupture History Mark Ledbury – were invited of the building provide openings between the heritage building to the final reviews to select some of between areas. Glass walls offer and his addition. His ‘museum of the most outstanding student work. vistas, and are also the solid relevance’ is conceptually and Some of these original schemes are boundaries between the spaces. practically oriented to Parramatta highlighted here. Road rather than the internal University architecture.

A Museum of Relevance: from left, James Feng, section; Karen Lin, soundscape exterior (detail); Karen Lin, soundscape site model; Alex Prichard, exterior view from Parramatta Rd.

26 27 Opposite page: Fresco depicting wrestlers, 3rd century AD; from the latrine of the Baths of the Wrestlers, Saint-Romain-En-Gal (France).

NMR.1090

Memento is one of those intriguing The inscriptions record the names words the meaning of which of Romans who lived between Grave has changed subtly over time. In the 1st and 4th centuries AD, with early Latin, it was the imperative occasional hints of other details secrets form of the verb ‘remember’. In such as their age, their relationships, Medieval Latin, it was used primarily their role in society or, in the case in the literature and teachings of sailors in the imperial fleet and – of the Catholic Church in the travellers, their ethnicity. phrase Memento Mori – literally, “Remember death”, meaning to One inscription, written in ancient An exhibition of reflect on one’s mortality, a concept Greek, is for a wrestler named that influenced art and philosophical Diogenes from Amastris in Asia marble funerary thinking for centuries. Minor (NMR. 1121, below right). Recent research by Robert De Vita stones provides “Here I lie, having lived among men Today a memento is a keepsake – an suggests that Diogenes may have during the cycles of four years and evocative memories of object specifically used as a physical died in, or near, Misenum while in addition to them six cycles of the reminder of a moment in life. travelling in Italy to compete in the holy moon, but while I was still a 64 Romans who lived Greek games held in Rome, Pozzuoli child my mother Tyche laid me in this Sixty-four Roman marble funerary and Naples in the early third stone tomb suffering great grief.” between the 1st and inscriptions in the Nicholson century AD. Museum, acquired in 1857-58 by Sir Each stone, translated by the th 4 centuries AD, writes Charles Nicholson, are the basis Thirty-eight inscriptions record the Nicholson Museum’s Senior Curator, of a new exhibition, Memento: deceased’s age. The youngest is for Michael Turner, conjures feelings exhibition co-curator Remembering Roman Lives. These a boy, Domitius Heraclianus, who so imminently relatable that one stones encapsulate all three lived for just a year and two months. cannot help but reflect on the Candace Richards. meanings of ‘memento’, allowing us nature of grief and mortality. to remember the individuals named Paternal or familial love is one of the and to reflect on the lives of the most common themes expressed Nicholson, in his 1862 lecture long deceased as well as our own. in the inscriptions. One of the most ‘Recollections of Italy’ at the They are in themselves mementos of emotive is that for the unnamed son University of Sydney, remarked on Nicholson’s Italian travels. of Tyche (NMR.1090, above): NMR.1121

28 29 Donations –

Sydney University Museums Donor Donors to collections Anne-Laure Paquot; Dr Lilon Bandler Holly Parker; Harrison Honour Roll for 2015 Dr Jeremy Beckett Perdicaris; Connie Peter de Beuzeville Peters; Anne Philp; Jack Sharon Cranswick Philp; Rachel Procter; We extend a huge thank Elizabeth Clarke Jan Tryphon Lynette Jensen Louise Pryke; Lise Pyres; you to all our donors Susan Clarke Deanne Whittleston Dorothy Lamberton Kathleen Roberts; and supporters who Helen Colman AM Margaret Williams Marie McMahon Frances Robson; Anna have made a significant Gail Comino Dr Elizabeth Willsteed Rowe; Catherine difference to what we Margaret Crawley Dr Andrew Wright Samways; Imogen Saxon; have been able to do. Rocco Criscitelli Madeleine Yuill Regular Volunteers Rehan Scharenguivel; Trevor Danos AM Anonymous Amelia Adams-Acton; Alexandra Seifertova; Principal benefactors Roger Doenau Karen Alexander; Ricardo Servin; Over $1,000,000 Paul Dressler John Anderson; Kit Deborah Shadbolt; Dr Chau Chak Wing Dr James Friend Contributors Ball; Yonas Bauer; Antony Skinner; Alan Professor John Furedy (Under $100) Kate Bittar; Julian Spackman; Bonnie Key Benefactors Gloria Gallaher Robin Amm AM; Helen Black; Richard Black; Spicer; Stephanie $500,000 - $999,999 Lesley Gent Bamford; Dr Helen NMR.1110 Naomi Blakey; Lauren Sneddon; Rebecca Penelope Seidler AM Gary Gent Bashir; Patricia Biggers; Booker; Francesca Staats; Gabrielle Steele; Dr Marie Healy Danny Blackman; Bonfante; Liz Cameron; Jasmine Stewart; Zan Principal supporters History Teachers DE Boesel; Matthew Ellen Campbell; Alyce Tabart; Camilla Tilly; Bao ($5000 – $19,999) Association of NSW Brandley; Emeritus Cannon; Thomas Ying Tong; Lara Tooby; Anne Galbraith Michael Hobbs Professor Donald Brook; Chalmers; Mikhaila Natascha Vale; Nathalie Neville Grace Dr Rosita Nigel Butterley; Joseph the emotive nature of the inscriptions Many stones from the Bay of Naples Chaplin; Hui Tuan Vermeer; Claire Vincent; Dr Valerie Havyatt Hohlenberg-Gibson Casamento; Maree Chean; Liz Cienciala; Denise Walker; Ashleigh he had recently acquired: region were part of a larger collection R John Lamble AO Dr Donald Horning Choenden‑Dhongdue; Deborah Colette; Wilkinson; Bec Wright; of Roman inscriptions made by a local The Hon David Levine Dr Monica Jackson Vanessa Cruise; Gai Di Matthew Connors; Simon Wyatt Sprat; AO, RFD, QC Geoff LeMarseny Bartolomeo; Louisa Di “The Latin language is peculiarly priest, Giuseppe de Criscio. Arabella Cooper; Darrienne Wyndham; Kenneth R Reed AM Vanessa Mack Bartolomeo; Alexandra expressive when employed for Maddie Cox; Greta Jeremy Zafiropoulos; Russell Robertson Donald Macleay Kelly; Dr Judith Fryer commemorative or dedicatory De Criscio was an avid collector and Cummings; Paige Davis; Sareeta Zaid Professor Warwick AM; Dr Joan Hocking; purposes, and the style in which was assisted by his parishioners, Imogen Dixon-Smith; Supporters Majcher Patricia Howard; Peter Karina Donso; Tori both pagan and Christian funeral who gave him their own finds. The ($1000 – $4999) Emeritus Professor Larcombe; Astrid Dowsett; Robert Drake- inscriptions are couched is often dedication to Vitellia Felicitas, who Adam Carr Bruce Mansfield, AM Lodens; Selwyn Owen; Brockman; Bec Duncan; Emeritus Professor Jennifer Manton Jonathan Persse; Fay the most touching and appropriate died at the age of eight years and Hannah Louise Dunlop; John Chalmers AC Graham Matheson Ryan; Victor Solomons; … [They] bear eloquent testimony five months (NMR.1110, above) was Pelin Ersoy; Miranda Julia Drew Christopher McCabe Geoff Stennett; Ann to the identity and permanence of found by a local Pozzuoli (peasant), Evans; Mandy Gaston; Dorothy Hoddinott AO Prudence McCullagh Sutherland; Rowena Rebecca Georgiades; the passions that agitate the human who gave it to de Criscio. It was David Tribe Diana Modesto Talacko; Mary Tanner; Siena Di Giovanni- heart – in all ages and under the later acquired by Nicholson. Anonymous Stephen Moskal Alan Taylor; Barbra Arundell; Joycelyn Goh; Dr Susan North Wagner; and donors most varied conditions.” Trinity Gurich; Mun Yee Contributors Geoffrey O’Donnell who wish to remain Through this history of collecting, Ho; Ian Ionnidis; Sarah ($100 – $999) Patricia Preistley anonymous. Most of the inscriptions were the stones capture moments in time Janson; Philip Jaworski; Karen Alexander Emeritus Professor Rolf collected by Nicholson in Rome as well as their initial remembrance Roslyn Jehne; Katherine Jenny Anderson Prince AO Sponsors and Grants Johns; Katerina and Naples. While few have exact dedication, and so have become Dr Valerie Attenbrow Jennifer Rapson Academy Travel; Kalenteridis; Jean archaeological find spots, the mementos of 19th century Italian Lucy Bantermalis Dr John Raven Australian Research Kearney; Greg Kenny; Ian Barnett Petronella Raven Council (Discovery provenance of the stones takes us peasants, priests, collectors Natasha King; Rebecca Anthony Barraket Jancis Rees Grant); The Chancellor’s into a fascinating world of 19th century and travellers. Lush; Sarah Little; Graeme Bartram Emeritus Professor Committee; Power Italian collectors. We know through Kayla Ann Lochner; Gregory Beattie Janice Reid, AC, AM Institute Foundation Nick Lorenzo; Danya early publications of antiquarian Memento: Remembering Roman Lives Richard Bird Rimil Investments Luo; Anabel Malcolm; academic C L Visconti that many of is open at the Nicholson Museum. Professor Alastair Pty Ltd Exhibition partners Sinead Martin; Lauren Blanshard Joseph Rooney Heide Museum of the stones procured in Rome were McAlary; Peter McGee; Dr Emmeline Boothroyd Patricia Rovik Modern Art; Queensland found or collected by Giambattista Candace Richards is the curatorial Julianne Miller; Matthew Dr Monica Bullen Nigel Russell University of Guidi, who was honorary Inspector assistant in the Nicholson Museum. Miller; Kim Minji; Dr Fiona Bush Elizabeth Starkey Technology; University Elizabeth Myers; Natasha of Excavations in the city and ideally Lydia Bushell Annalise Thomas of Wollongong; Victorian Nassentein; Pavleta placed, it would seem, to be trading Judith Campbell Ken Thompson College of the Arts Naydenova; Elliot Nolan; in antiquities. Dr John Carras Diane Truss

30 31 Ancestor figures: left, from Kisar Island, Maluku Province, Indonesia. Photo: Holly Parker, Mamuli ornament, 2015 (ET2014.2210 and Sumba Island, ET2014.2194); right, from East Nusa Biak District, West Papua Tenggara (ET2014.2230). Macleay Province, Museum. Indonesia. Photo: Sarah Kennedy, 2015, Macleay Museum (ET2014.2144.1- .2).

University of Sydney alumnus, Mamuli ritual objects, burial goods, part of Ancestor figures manner in which people died, physician, surgeon, and art collector a formal bridal gift from the groom’s as well as their treatment after Sarah Kennedy Holly Parker Rites of Dr Peter Elliott (1927-2014) made family to the wife’s family. They were death, determined whether they many generous donations to the The desire to create and possess also worn by men as adornments. For generations, carved wooden would manifest into protective or passage Macleay and University Art Gallery objects of gold is common in many figures of ancestors have played harmful spiritual ancestors. collections. His last was the Indonesian cultures, particularly Traditionally made in a diamond an important role in the daily bequest of Indonesian artefacts those to the east of Java. Some of shape, mamuli could be left and ceremonial lives of many The spirits of deceased ancestors – that today form part of the Macleay the finest examples are the mamuli relatively plain or be highly Indonesian societies. are asked to enter the objects and ethnographic collections. ornaments of Sumba Island in Nusa decorated – embellished with are embodied in the carved wooden Tenggara, Indonesia. animals, birds, ships or soldiers. Dr Elliott (see page 32) was an avid figures. In return for being looked Sarah Kennedy and Principally associated with West collector of this kind of cultural after by the living, the figures could Papua and islands east of the In Sumbanese society gold was Thought to date from the late 19th, object, especially those in the style be asked to provide guidance or Holly Parker, two Wallace line (indicating distinct believed to be celestial – to have early 20th century, the mamuli of the Biak region, West Papua and advice on how to deal with daily or ecozones), these materials have come from the sun. Considered in the Macleay collection are islands in the south of the Maluku important matters. University of Sydney recently been the focus of two intrinsically ‘hot’ and ‘bitter’, it ornamented with human figures on Province. Human figures served a internship projects. had to be handled and treated horseback, granulation on the finials purpose richer than pure aesthetic The ancestor’s advice was usually students, enhance with the utmost care and respect. and scrollwork lining the centre value in these places and give us a heeded and found useful. In The our understanding of Master of Museum and Heritage For this reason and because they split. The horse is a prestigious glimpse of the ways some of these Eloquent Dead (Jerome Feldman, Studies students Sarah Kennedy and were believed to have possessed symbol of kingship and power societies viewed death. 1985), however, there is mention that Indonesian cultures. Holly Parker have together rehoused connections to ancestor spirits, in Sumbanese art. if outcomes of events proved truly and catalogued more than 120 items mamuli were often kept hidden. A relationship of complementarity catastrophic, it was not uncommon as part of their placements and the and reciprocity exists between for a figure to be destroyed. completion of their studies. They Despite the fact they are often the living and the dead. In share some of their research and found in pairs, like the two collected the Biak region people could insights into the collection. by Dr Peter Elliott, it is unclear become a spiritual ancestor whether mamuli were worn as by their clan association; they earrings or pendants. Owned by did not need to have biological noble families, they were used as descendants. Sometimes the

32 33 Making history –

1 3

1. Senior curator Ann 3. Manuel Castejon Please help us to conserve and grow Stephen, Lynette Fern, and Jude Philp in Emeritus Professor the library of the Virginia Spate, Penelope ADCK (Agency for Name: �� Seidler AM, Julie the Development of Ewington and Professor Kanak Culture) Centre Address: �� Please accept my: Susan Best at the launch Culturel Tjibaou, �� £ Cheque £ Money order £ Credit card of Women in Power. New Caledonia. Sydney 5 (Please make payable to The University of Sydney) University Museums Phone: �� 2. The Nicholson Museum’s donated a series of Candace Richards maps to Tjibaou for Email: �� Credit card details with Xinzhi Qiu, who their programs. £ Visa £ MasterCard visited the museum in January while filming 4. Director David Ellis Please accept my gift of: Card No: �� the Chinese TV show at Sigiriya Rock, a £ $50 £ $100 £ $250 £ Other $ �� Travels with Superstar. 1500-year-old palace (Donations of $2 or more are tax deductible) Cardholder’s name: �� and now UNESCO World Heritage site in central Expiry:...... Signature: �� Sri Lanka, 2015. I would like to allocate my donation to: £ Digitisation Program £ Acquisitions £ Please send me information about how I can remember the 5. Stayin’ alive with Dr Craig Barker on a new £ Macleay Museum £ Conservation University of Sydney in my will. staff orientation tour. £ Nicholson Museum £ Research £ University Art Gallery £ Museums and Art Gallery priorities £ I confirm that I have included the University of Sydney in my will.

Sydney University Museums, A14/H120 +61 2 9351 2274 [email protected] ABN 15 211 513 464 University of Sydney NSW 2006 Australia +61 2 9351 2881 (fax) sydney.edu.au/museums CRICOS 00026A CFN 10369

35 Follow us on Twitter at Heritage tours Find your muse at twitter.com/ sydneyunimuseum and education Sydney University Museums or find us on Facebook by searching for ‘Sydney programs University Museums’. Whether you would like to view an exhibition or attend a – talk, we have plenty on offer. For further information and to The Nicholson Museum, Macleay Museum and view the latest timetable, visit sydney.edu.au/museums Sydney University Museums University Art Gallery have offer extensive school (K-12) and click on ‘What’s on’. their own Facebook pages and adult education programs and Twitter feeds. and group heritage tours. For more information email us at [email protected]

March April May June To view the latest timetable visit sydney.edu.au/museums and follow – – – – links to the events calendar.

Tuesday 1 March, 6.30pm Saturday 5 March, Saturday 2 April, 2–3pm Saturday 7 May, 2–3pm Saturday 4 June, 12–1pm Cypriot Art in the 2.30–3.30pm Roman History and the American Revolution Modern Ovids: 20th Role of new technologies Nicholson Museum Women in Power: Public talk by Matthew Laing (Academy Travel) century transformations in communicating science Activities for Public lecture by In conversation The 2016 Series Classicism Ancient & Modern; Public talk by Dr Paul Roche, Kate Dunn in conversation Dr Craig Barker, Novelist and academic how Rome transformed our world is sponsored University of Sydney with journalist Paddy children in the Sydney University Museums Larissa Behrendt and by Academy Travel The 2016 Series Classicism Ancient & Manning Cost: $40 ($30 for Friends philanthropist and Cost: free Modern; how Rome transformed our Cost: free April school of the Nicholson Museum collector Gene Sherman in Venue: Nicholson Museum world is sponsored by Academy Travel Venue: Macleay Museum and their guests) conversation with Senior Cost: free holidays Venue: Nicholson Museum Curator Ann Stephen Saturday 2 April, 2-3pm Venue: Nicholson Museum Saturday 4 June, 2pm Cost: free Women in Power: In conversation Dušan Marek – Thursday 3 March, 5.30 Venue: University Art Gallery Curator Julie Ewington and Professor Virginia Saturday 7 May, 3–4pm Curator Stephen Mould Exhibition opening: Kate Dunn Spate in conversation with Dr Ann Stephen Lazarus Species and the artist’s niece, Sydney University Museums hosts (UNSW) Rapid prototyping: Tuesday 8 March Cost: free Public talk by Macleay curators artist Olga Sankey, discuss a series of special activity days models of climate change Mendel Day Venue: University Art Gallery Jude Philp, Anthony Gill and the work of Dušan Marek for children aged 5-12 during the Cost: free Join us for the inaugural Robert Blackburn Cost: free school holidays. Entry is by gold coin Venue: Macleay Museum Mendel Day as the Genetics Tuesday 5 April, 6.30pm In conjunction with Nation Trust’s Venue: University donation, and arts and craft activities Society of Australasia Exhibition opening Heritage Festival 2016 Art Gallery run throughout the day. Saturday 5 March, 2–3pm and geneticists around Alpha & Omega: the beginning and the end Cost: free The rise and fall of the classical the world host events Cost: $40 ($30 for Friends of the Nicholson Venue: Macleay Museum Saturday 4 June, 2–3pm Bookings are not necessary. English landscape garden: to salute Mendel’s bold Museum and their guests) Neo-classicism, the Celebrating 300 years of hypothesis – a hypothesis Venue: Nicholson Museum Wednesday 11 May, 6pm Enlightenment and Thursday 14 April, 10am–4pm Capability Brown that has enabled us to Uncovering the hidden past of the the French Revolution Greek Myths and Legends Public talk by Michael Turner make so much sense out Wednesday 20 April, 6–7pm Macleay Museum kakapo using Public talk by Michael Learn about the ancient Greek gods, FSA (Nicholson Museum) of so much biological Art and Science investigating archives, geographic information Adcock (Academy Travel) goddesses, heroes and heroines! The 2016 Series Classicism confusion, and to make so climate change panel systems and ancient DNA The 2016 Series Classicism Venue: Nicholson Museum Ancient & Modern; how Rome much progress in feeding, Kate Dunn, Dr Sarah A public talk by 2015 Macleay-Miklouho- Ancient & Modern; how transformed our world is clothing and improving Perkins-Kirkpatrick and Dr Elizabeth Carter. Maclay Fellow Dr Lindsey Gray Rome transformed our Tuesday 19 April, 10am–4pm sponsored by Academy Travel the health of humanity. Cost: free Cost: free world is sponsored by Written in stone Cost: free Cost: free Venue: Macleay Museum Venue: Macleay Museum Academy Travel Explore Indigenous culture Venue: Nicholson Museum Venue: Macleay Museum Cost: free and handle genuine Wednesday 27 April, 1pm Venue: Nicholson Museum Aboriginal stone tools! Dušan Marek All details are correct at Venue: Macleay Museum the time of publication, Guest Curator Stephen Mould discusses but events may change due Wednesday 29 June–1 July to circumstances beyond the work of Dušan Marek our control. Exhibition: The colonial Thursday 21 April, 10am–4pm Cost: free author photographs from Is it real or is it surreal? If you wish to contact the Venue: University Art Gallery Macleay Museum, the Nicholson Thu Van Tran Discover the surreal and create Museum or the University Art Cost: free your own masterpieces! Gallery, please see page 1 for our details. Venue: Macleay Museum Venue: University Art Gallery

36 37 Image: Roman marble funerary inscriptions.

Their names are inscribed in stone yet their Memento: stories can only be guessed at.

Remembering An exhibition of Roman funerary monuments Roman Lives from the Nicholson collection.

Exhibition now on. Nicholson Museum Free admission. The Quadrangle The University of Sydney

Opening hours: Monday to Friday 10am - 4.30pm, first Saturday of each month 12 noon - 4pm. Closed on Public Holidays sydney.edu.au/museums