1001 Remarkable Objects catalogues the Powerhouse Museum's landmark 2023 exhibition at Ultimo, drawing on the institution's decorative arts and design collections to present one thousand and one objects through documentary photography and fifteen commissioned literary responses.
About This Book
This is a publication that refuses to behave like a standard museum catalogue. Alongside documentary photography and captions for all 1001 objects, 1001 Remarkable Objects weaves in fifteen original texts commissioned from four curators and eleven Australian authors — among them DOBBY (Rhyan Clapham), Omar Musa, Favel Parrett, and Charmaine Papertalk Green. The forms are deliberately varied: HipHop, memoir, fiction, creative non-fiction, historiography, essay. The result is a publication that sits at the intersection of decorative arts history and contemporary Australian writing, reframing the museum object as a site of cultural meaning rather than mere artefact. For designers and collectors interested in material culture, it is as much anthology as catalogue.
Key Features
- Opens with 32 still life photographs by Lauren Bamford, produced in collaboration with art director and stylist Sarah Pritchard
- Contributors include DOBBY (Rhyan Clapham), Leo Schofield AM, Sheila Ngọc Phạm, Omar Musa, Eva Czernis-Ryl, Ronan Sulich, Eadric Le Brocq, Favel Parrett, Charmaine Papertalk Green, Robert Wellington, Alecia Simmonds, Anna Clark, Adam Ferrier, Mark Sutcliffe, and Christa Hughes
- Documentary photography and captions across all 1001 collection objects
- Published by Powerhouse Publishing, 2023
What You'll Discover
- How fifteen writers across different disciplines respond to individual objects, revealing the cultural and personal resonances embedded in decorative arts and design collections
- The range of literary forms — HipHop, memoir, fiction, creative non-fiction, historiography, and essay — deployed to interpret a single institutional collection
- Lauren Bamford's still life photography as a distinct interpretive layer, composed with art director Sarah Pritchard to reframe objects outside conventional display contexts
- The breadth of Powerhouse Museum's decorative arts holdings as represented through the curatorial selection of 1001 objects spanning the collection's full scope
About the Author
The publication's fifteen narrative texts were written by the four exhibition curators plus eleven Australian authors commissioned by Powerhouse, including DOBBY (Rhyan Clapham), Leo Schofield AM, Omar Musa, Favel Parrett, Charmaine Papertalk Green, and others. Photography is by Lauren Bamford, working in collaboration with art director and stylist Sarah Pritchard.
Specifications
- Format: Hardcover
- Pages: [Details available upon request]
- Dimensions: 40 x 170 mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9780645530926
- Publisher: Powerhouse Publishing
- Publication Date: 2023
Perfect For: Designers, curators, collectors, and readers interested in Australian material culture, decorative arts history, and the intersection of literary writing with institutional collections.