British artist and stage designer Es Devlin is opening The Turning, her first Australian exhibition and the headline international show at the new $1 billion Powerhouse Parramatta museum. The exhibition replaces original plans for a planetarium and features six installations, including a communal portrait project where visitors sketch strangers and a mirror maze.
The Turning is one of five debut shows at the Powerhouse, alongside Task Eternal, The Dark, The Mall and Overflow. The LED screens and fabricated structures cost $10 million, contracts show.
The exhibition occupies the museum's fifth floor with six installations arranged as chapters. Forest of Us opens with a video narrated by Devlin revealing the biological symmetry between human lungs and forest canopies, then leads into a mirror maze. Next, Memory Palace is an illuminated disc highlighting monuments and moments of individual action, from the railings of Parliament Square where Emmeline Pankhurst protested to the banks of the Parramatta River.
At the heart of the show sits Collective Portrait. Visitors take opposite seats at a 24-metre table holding a continuous paper scroll, set a timer for 15 minutes, and sketch the stranger facing them. The resulting drawings are added to an ever-expanding communal tapestry. Devlin has staged versions in London, Miami, Seoul and São Paulo. 'Doesn't matter whether you can draw or not, I don't mind,' Devlin said. 'It's more: can you look into the eyes of a stranger for 15 minutes and leave a trace of that encounter?'
The concept originated when Devlin invited 50 strangers into her London home and drew each after 45 minutes of silent eye contact. 'I found it deeply moving. What I expected of them, what I thought they might be, gradually fell away.'
In ScreenShare, an entire room is papered floor-to-ceiling with prints from Devlin's 30-year archive, and visitors can peel a print off the wall to take home. The final installation is an egg-shaped sound pavilion on the museum's terrace, bearing hallmarks of the U2 set design she helped create in Las Vegas.
Devlin, celebrated for blurring the line between art and stagecraft, has designed concert sets for Beyoncé, Adele, Miley Cyrus and Lady Gaga, co-designed Super Bowl halftime shows, and shaped visual spectacles including the Australian Open's player tunnel at Rod Laver Arena.
Powerhouse Parramatta's chief executive Lisa Havilah approached Devlin three years ago via personal introductions. Devlin said the museum's team was passionate about not separating arts and science. 'We need both modes of attention.'
She said entertainment's original meaning is to hold people together, echoing Maya Angelou's insight that people will forget what you said and did but not how you made them feel. The museum is free.
Analysis
Why This Matters
- The exhibition marks the public opening of Sydney's most expensive cultural institution, the $1 billion Powerhouse Parramatta.
- It signals a shift towards immersive, experiential art over traditional museum displays, replacing original planetarium plans.
- Choosing an internationally renowned artist for the inaugural show raises the profile of the Parramatta museum.
Background
The Powerhouse Parramatta is a new $1 billion museum conceived as Australia's answer to the Smithsonian. The Turning replaced initial plans for a planetarium. Es Devlin is a British artist and stage designer known for concert set designs for Beyoncé, Adele, Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, and for co-designing Super Bowl halftime shows.
What to Watch
- The reception of The Turning and the four other debut exhibitions: Task Eternal, The Dark, The Mall, and Overflow.
- The museum's ability to draw visitors to western Sydney.
- Future programming decisions after this early commitment to contemporary art.
Checked
12 claims in this story checked against 1 source: 11 supported.
Show each claim
- SupportedThe Turning is Es Devlin’s first Australian exhibition and the headline international show opening Powerhouse Parramatta.Sydney Morning Herald - Latest News: “These are the questions British artist Es Devlin poses in The Turning, her inaugural Australian exhibition and the headline international show opening the new $1 billion Powerhouse Parramatta.”
- SupportedPowerhouse Parramatta is a new $1 billion museum.Sydney Morning Herald - Latest News: “the headline international show opening the new $1 billion Powerhouse Parramatta”
- SupportedThe exhibition includes a communal portrait project in which visitors sketch strangers.Sydney Morning Herald - Latest News: “Visitors take opposite seats, set a timer for 15 minutes, and sketch the stranger facing them. The resulting drawings join an ever-expanding communal tapestry hung across the gallery walls.”
- SupportedThe exhibition includes a mirror maze.Sydney Morning Herald - Latest News: “Viewers then step physically through the screen into a mirror maze, akin to Coney Island, where they lose themselves in fractured reflections.”
- SupportedThe exhibition replaces original plans for a planetarium.Sydney Morning Herald - Latest News: “her show replacing original plans for a planetarium.”
- SupportedThe exhibition has six installations.Sydney Morning Herald - Latest News: “For the Powerhouse, she has assembled six art installations and arranged them into chapters on its fifth floor”
- SupportedThe LED screens and fabricated structures cost $10 million, according to contracts.Sydney Morning Herald - Latest News: “The LED screens and fabricated structures were installed at a cost of $10 million, contracts show.”
- SupportedDevlin said: “Doesn’t matter whether you can draw or not, I don’t mind,” and “It’s more: can you look into the eyes of a stranger for 15 minutes and leave a trace of that encounter?”Sydney Morning Herald - Latest News: ““Doesn’t matter whether you can draw or not, I don’t mind,” Devlin explains. “It’s more: can you look into the eyes of a stranger for 15 minutes and leave a trace of that encounter?”
- SupportedThe concept began with Devlin inviting 50 strangers to her London home and drawing them after 45 minutes of silent eye contact.Sydney Morning Herald - Latest News: “The concept originated when Devlin invited 50 strangers into her London home, one by one. “I didn’t speak to them. I just looked into their eyes for 45 minutes and drew”
- SupportedDevlin said: “I found it deeply moving. What I expected of them, what I thought they might be, gradually fell away.”Sydney Morning Herald - Latest News: “and I found it deeply moving. What I expected of them, what I thought they might be, gradually fell away.”
- SupportedDevlin said: “We need both modes of attention.”Sydney Morning Herald - Latest News: ““We need both modes of attention,” she says.”
- Not in the sourcesLisa Havilah was Powerhouse Parramatta’s chief executive when she approached Devlin.Sydney Morning Herald - Latest News: “the Powerhouse’s Lisa Havilah approached the artist three years ago, via personal introductions”