Hugh O'Connor

A Line A Web A World is a constellation of drawings from the Powerhouse Collection that traverses thousands of years and refuses conventional definitions of what a drawing can be. This first in-depth look at drawings from the collection embraces the democratic nature of drawing and considers the question of why we draw. Hugh worked closely with curator Katie Dyer, artistic associate Agatha Gothe-Snape and graphic design Alex Tanazefti. Their collaborative work represents a merging of curatorial, spatial, conceptual, and graphic thinking, and pushes the boundaries of exhibition making within the traditional museum space.

Both the exhibition title wall and exhibition text were hand painted by Will Lynes, adding an additional layer of physical drawing as well as interpretation to the exhibition space. The exhibition room sheet provided not only object information, but a guide for the space, helping audience members navigate their way through this web of drawings.

Highlight from the exhibition include: a 4000-year-old Sumerian cuneiform tablet; a 37 metre navigational chart of the Darling River (1870–90); Australian inventor Lawrence Hargrave’s childhood drawings; the Sun's corona captured by a 19th century astronomer at Sydney Observatory; botanical drawings by Filumena March Phillipps (1880s); a wall drawing by Agatha Gothe-Snape, and digital drawings for Kaps Freed music composition (2016) and Untitled Goose Game (2019).

The project was managed by Rosalie Wiesner and realised with the support of a multidisciplinary team of Powerhouse staff and collaborators.

Photography by Zan Wimberly

Presented by Powerhouse Museum for Sydney WorldPride 2023, Absolutely Queer showcased eight of Sydney’s leading queer creatives who are reshaping attitudes towards their community through their work, creative processes and personal stories. From installation and performance artists to videogame developers, cartoonists and fashion designers, these creatives form a diverse snapshot of LGBTQIA+ creativity and activism in Sydney and represent new, more nuanced, and inclusive ways of being and becoming

A truly collaborative process, Hugh was invited to work closely with each artist in order to create a series of bespoke displays that blurred the line between museum exhibition and art instillation. Drawing inspiration from the artists creative practice’s and always with the intention of centring their voices, Hugh’s designs invited audiences to watch, listen, touch, play, sit and peek, disrupting both the museum space and traditional modes of audience engagement.

Artists Featured:

The Beautiful and Useful Studio of Maurice Goldberg and Matthew Aberline

Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay mixed media artist Dennis Golding

Multi-disciplinary artist Justin Shoulder

Social justice activist and cartoonist Norrie, drag king performer Sexy Galexy

Multi-award-winning Mardi Gras costume designer Renè Rivas,

Nikita Majajas of jewellery brand Doodad + Fandango with DJ Charlie Villas

Gender and body diverse fashion house Nicol & Ford

Videogame developers, animators and illustrators Scott Ford and Peter Foley of Fuzzy Ghost

Acknowledging the pioneering Mardi Gras creatives, the exhibition also included costumes featured in the 1996 Powerhouse exhibition Absolutely Mardi Gras, including work by Brenton Heath-Kerr, Ron Muncaster, Brian Ross and Peter Tully.

Exhibition curation by Glynis Jones, Rodger Leong, Anni Turnbull, Tuan Hguyen and Chloe Appleby. The project was managed by Rosalie Wiesner and realised with the support of a multidisciplinary team of Powerhouse staff and collaborators.

Photography by Zan Wimberly

Presented by the Powerhouse Museum, Charkra and Kargha coincided with the 75th anniversary of India’s independence on 15 August 2022. Taking its title from Charkha (spinning wheel) and Kargha (loom), the exhibition explored the role that textiles played in India’s movement towards independence from colonial rule and featured over 100 rare items dating back to the foundational collections acquired by the museum since the 1880s.

In addition to their beauty, many of the textiles featured in the exhibition incorporated spinning, weaving, dyeing and embroidery techniques. Highlights included block-printed textiles, known as Fustat fragments, believed to be made in Gujarat in the 1400s.

Also featuring works by contemporary artists Sangeeta Sandrasegar (What Falls From View, 2019) and Anu Kumar, the exhibition was curated by Dr Pedram Khosronejad and assistant curator Alysha Buss with exhibition design by Hugh O’Connor. The project was managed by Anna Gardner and realised with the support of a multidisciplinary team of Powerhouse staff and collaborators.

Photography by Zan Wimberly

Presented by Bell Shakespeare, Hugh (as set and costume designer) worked closely with director Janine Watson on reimagining this classic comedy.

Photography by Brett Boardman

The Powerhouse Collection of more than half a million objects tells us much about our material culture but it also inspires many questions. What are our objects made of? How old are they? Is anything hidden inside? Over time, new research and technologies can help us solve these mysteries – and reveal new ones. Invisible Revealed highlights imagery work done by the museum in partnership with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO). It shows some discoveries that were made using ANTSO's state-of-the-art neutron beam and synchrotron X-ray facilities combined with digital visualisation techniques, including how to identify different makers of our samurai swords and how a 200-year-old pocket watch can play a waltz.

The exhibition also features digital 3D models of some Powerhouse Collection objects and a digital reconstruction of the missing portions of a fragmentary carpet completed by the EPICentre at UNSW using Artificial Intelligence.

Marking the 60th friendship between Australia and South Korea in 2021, the Powerhouse Museum in collaboration with the Chuncheon National Museum (Korea) presented Five Hundred Arhats of Changnyeongsa. Featuring 50 stone arhats and one Buddha in an immersive exhibition, Hugh collaborated with contemporary Korean artist Kim Seung Young and Powerhouse curator Min-Jung Kimor for the Australian presentation of this work (following on from presentations in 2018 and 2019 in Korea).

The Five Hundred Arhats, enlightened disciples of the Buddha, were discovered among the ruins of the Changnyeongsa Temple in South Korea and are believed to be 600–1000 years old.

Split into two gallery spaces, Hugh work closely with Kim Seung Young to translate this work for the Powerhouse. The floor of the first gallery space was created using over 11,000 locally sourced, recycled bricks. 390 of these were engraved with poems, thoughts, words and phrases in over 20 languages. Hugh worked closely with scenic artist Pablo Donnan in order to create a layer of moss and algae that covered the flooring. The second gallery consisted of a tower made up of more than 1000 audio speakers surrounded by an urban soundscape by sound designer Oh Yoonseok. Arhats were positioned in this tower as if meditating in an attitude of intimate, reclusive poise amidst a cacophony that evokes the distracting bustle of urban life.

Google says, "The psychodynamic core of addiction is the repetition-compulsion, i.e. the addicts repeat the same self-destructive behaviours over and over, in spite of their personal resolve not to do it." Presented by The Flying Nun and Brand X, Whitney and Me was a feedback loop of Whitney Houston fandom and YouTube hysteria in which performer Lucas Jervies mimicked, morphed and manipulated a 4-minute Whitney Houston video into an hour-long, low-budget spectacular.

Based on an idea by Lucas Jervies, this project was co-created and performed by Hugh O’Connor, Harriet Gillies and Solomon Thomas.

Come to the Whitney Houston Addicts Anonymous meeting and be complicit in the bad behaviour. Everything disintegrates. All that remains is, Whitney.

Presented by the Powerhouse, 100 Climate Conversations was a weekly set of conversations with 100 climate leaders, 10 journalists, spanning two years. As Australia’s most ambitious climate-focused cultural project, 100 Climate Conversations showcases 100 visionary Australians taking effective action to respond to the most critical issue of our time, climate change. From regional farmers sequestering soil carbon, Traditional Owners managing Country through cultural burning to architects building carbon-neutral homes — each offers an inspired narrative of invention, community and resilience.

The weekly conversations, hosted by some of the nation’s most respected journalists, simultaneously exist as a series of live events within an exhibition studio, as a durational video instillation within the Powerhouse, and as a website and podcast. Upon completion of the project, records of the conversations will be archived for future generations as part of the museum’s collection.

With the overall project concept from Powerhouse CEO Lisa Havilah, and curation from Catherine Polcz and Brianna Barwise, Hugh collaborated with designer Elizabeth Gadsby to conceptualise and design the live exhibition space and durational instillation.

The Powerhouse Museum’s public Summer Program for Step into Paradise: Jenny Kee and Linda Jackson culminated with a float entry in the 2020 Mardi Gras Parade. As creative director (in collaboration with Jenny Kee and Linda Jackson), Hugh was invited to draw inspiration from and celebrate Linda and Jenny’s iconic body of work, passionate environmental advocacy, while simultaneously paying homage to their formative relationships with Mardi Gras founding artists David McDiarmid and Peter Tully. Featuring Jenny and Linda’s archival artwork brought to life through set construction from MNR Constructions and community generated posters printed larger than life by Big Image.

The project brought together friends and family of Jenny and Linda, artists, activists and Museum staff; celebration of diversity, community and creative practice. The parade was viewed by 500 000 people, both in person and through the inaugural live SBS broadcast.

Dubbed 'the Comic Con for beauty’, Meccaland was a 3 day festival which saw 15,000 makeup fans converge on Australian Technology Park for endless tutorials, samples, influencer meet and greets and Instagram opportunities.

In collaboration with TeamEvent and Taboo Group, Hugh worked as art director on the festival, conceptualising and designing 6 bespoke identities and areas for the venue, as well as breakout spaces, stages and various activations.

Presented by The Ensemble Theatre

Presented by Outhouse Theatre

Hugh worked with Mardi Gras from 2018-2021 as the principle parade float designer, conceptualising and designing parade entries for both Mardi Gras and various groups including; Woolworths, SBS, KIIS FM, L’Oreal, Vodaphone, Instagram, QANTAS, Fat Yak and Myer.

Embracing the spectacle and scale of the parade form, Hugh worked closely with the historic Mardi Gras workshop and its diverse multidisciplinary group of makers to explore forms and mediums including large scale puppetry, inflatables, sculpture, scenic and construction.

Presented by Art and About and Vivid Sydney

Presented by Outhouse Theatre

Milk Crate Theatre works with an ensemble of artists who have experienced homelessness or social marginalisation. Its cross-sector presence and strengths-based approach enables them to provide a safe, creative space for the Ensemble to create authentic and transformative theatre that challenges, inspires and brings communities together

This House is Mine was the result of an 18-month process of development in consultation and creation with over 40 Ensemble Artists.

Hugh collaborated on this production as the set and costume designer.

Collaborators:

Playwright/Producer - Maree Freeman

Director - Paige Rattray

Video Design Consultant - Sean Bacon

Video Artist - Sarah Emery

Originally devised for the 2012 NIDA Director and Designers production season, The Witches was an experimental, movement based, single performer re-imagining of Roald Dhals classic children book.

A celebration and investigation of the act of storytelling, Hugh worked as set and costume designer in collaboration with director Lucas Jervies and performer Guy Edmonds. Using only a handful of everyday objects and ephemera, a single costume and analogue magic tricks, The Witches played with the notion of transformation as it conjured a story space that was silly, serious, dark and camp. Harnessing the collective imagination of the audience, and maintaining the playful essence of the rehearsal room in which it was created, The Witches was presented as a piece appropriate for ages 1-100.

This project was presented in subsequent seasons and national tours by Griffin Theatre and Malthouse Theatre (2014 and 2015) and by Regional Arts Victoria (2017).

Additional collaborators included; Lighting design by Christopher Page, 2015 Western Australia tour performer Scott Sheridan and 2017 tour performer Christian Charisiou.