Wal-LACE and Gromit

Stuck for anything to do on a Sunday, I finally made it to the Powerhouse Museum, which was literally a block away from my apartment and it would have been ridiculous if I hadn’t gone (although I never did make it to the fish market throughout my stay there, which was also close, oh well). I remembered there being lots of cool science experiments that you could play around with as well as trains, ships, rockets, and other displays, although I ended up mostly just seeing the traveling exhibits instead.

I bought a ticket to the Wallace and Gromit exhibit (had to see it, gotta love those guys!) which was fun and focused on inventors and their useful inventions. I particularly liked this poster about square teapots, which seemed really handy and could be stacked and used without the danger of breaking off the spout or the handle.

They also had lots of Wallace and Gromit sets, which were surprisingly tiny (don’t know why I thought they would be larger). Here’s the greenhouse from the “Curse of the Were-Rabbit” movie, and you can see Gromit tending his giant zucchini.

And the bread forklift thing from “A Matter of Loaf or Death.”

 I loved this random weather-o-meter, which was a guide to what hat to wear, and reminded me a lot of the weather in Canada, especially at Hailstone, the high elevation site.

Speaking of hats, here’s a “Thinking Cap.”

 Then I wandered into the other temporary exhibit which was all about lace. This may sound dull but was actually really cool, since most of it wasn’t normal lace, but artists’ interpretations of lace using every material imaginable, from metal to glass to paper to fabric to (wait for it…) echidna spines!

The detail on some of the pieces was incredible, and the lighting was really well done so that the shadows formed by the positive and negative space were an important component of the display. Here are a few of the ones I photographed, but mostly I just looked and admired. Here’s some clothing ones.

And a cute tea set.

This one was representing coral, which I think it did pretty well, although they also look a lot like shells.

Some were actually multi-media, like a film of a Claymation flower opening and closing, or a digital beehive that very slowly created a baby’s jacket (it was weird and had a folksy soundtrack). Anyway definitely a really cool exhibit, and it had pieces from artists all over the world (it was a competition thing and there were prizes for the best and most creative artwork). Some of the pieces were from students at art school in Sydney, and one was from Santa Rosa, CA, so that was fun. Here’s a pretty shibori set (just for Rachael).

I just had to drop in on the Wiggles exhibit, which was clearly for kids and had lots of fun songs and colours and holographic videos of the Wiggles performing (they’re a children’s music group if you don’t know). I didn’t take any pics, but it was quite fun wandering around and learning about Australian kids’ songs and humour.

I just had time for a quick peak at the transportation section and the experiments section that I vaguely remembered from last time I was there. I watched a robot do a fun little dance and sniffed various synthetic and natural smells. I thought I had left enough time before it closed, but there was still a lot more to see, although I was glad I spent so long in the new exhibits since they were the most unusual.