Last Word: Dr Paul Donnelly

Dr Paul Donnelly, Deputy Director, Chau Chak Wing Museum

I came to the University of Sydney nearly six years ago as Associate Director, Content. I was to lead the curators in the development of the exhibitions for the new Chau Chak Wing Museum, which opened at the end of 2020 in our brand new, five-level building, designed by JPW Architects. The project brings together under the same roof the Nicholson Museum of antiquity, Macleay Museum of natural history, science, and Indigenous and Pacific cultures, and the University Art Gallery. I feel extremely fortunate to have played a significant role in the design and development of the new structure and its sixteen opening exhibitions . . . and there was to be an unforeseen bonus.

I had come to the University from the Powerhouse Museum where I had been a curator in the Decorative Arts and Design department. I loved being a curator, sharing collections with visitors through meaningful arrangement and the presentation of stories in exhibitions and programs. Objects and their connections to people, places and events have always fascinated me. From the age of 12 when I was old enough to catch the London Tube independently, I would regularly visit the Science Museum and Natural History Museum. Eventually, I would add the British Museum to the itinerary. This clearly left an impression as I went on to specialise in Mediterranean Archaeology at university. Passion became a career but after 22 years as a curator, the prospect of helping to build a new museum at the University of Sydney was irresistible, even if it meant participating in exhibitions from a more removed and strategic perspective. Or so I thought. Enter the introductory exhibition!

Prior to my arrival there had been an expectation of a ‘highlights’ display introducing Museum visitors to the history of the collections. However, I felt uncomfortable with a conventional ‘treasures’ or icons display discussing objects in isolation rather than in thematic exhibitions where they would be better contextualised. There was also the issue of what constitutes a ‘treasure’? Such a subjective term inevitably privileges traditional (and frequently) western art and culture. It was especially important within the intellectual environment of the University to subvert the traditional canon and in so doing contribute to a decolonising approach within the institution. I felt the exhibition also had to be a visually splendid celebration while at the same time demonstrating the interdisciplinary potential of our new combined identity. With my role working broadly across the collections it made sense that I would curate this opening show.

Object/Art/Specimen was the eventual outcome – an introduction devised around six triple-barrelled existential and philosophical themes beginning with Sex, Love, Death and progressing through Chaos, Pattern, Order among the six. Placed in the Power Gallery space at the Museum’s entrance, Object/Art/ Specimen presents objects from across all the collections to demonstrate the Museum’s diversity, depth, and breadth. As the title suggests, objects, art and specimens are interchangeable depending upon context and the background a visitor brings to them.

The exhibition is dominated by four enormous red cedar cases which (as the impressed stamps at each end record) were made in 1890 specifically for the Macleay Museum. Placed end-to-end on a plinth the length of the gallery, they have become objects in themselves as well as receptacles for objects. They add warmth to the new building and are a respectful nod to our past. Featuring as diverse a range as a bowerbird’s bower, to 5th century BCE Athenian red-figure vessels, or Grace CossingtonSmith’s painting of the Ballets Russes, to a half-million year-old Acheulian hand axe – the cases are the canvas for an intriguing array of material that also provide a contrast to the modern design elements sharing in the display of the 300 objects, art, and specimens.

Object/Art/Specimen celebrates the opening of the Chau Chak Wing Museum – a transformative project for the University of Sydney. I am thrilled that despite the expectation of not curating an exhibition I have been responsible for the strategic display that shows where we have come from, and the many places we can go. Happy days!