< Previouscelebrated as an objective device, but of course it’s always involved a series of subjective decisions – about what’s included and what’s excluded, through framing or focus. I’m really interested in creating images where it’s not an either/or situation, where you’re either in the frame or out. I really like the idea of creating these very stubborn figures that conspicuously maintain a presence inside the image – they’re vivid and glittery – but at the same time they’re nowhere to be seen, they’re hiding in plain sight. I’m looking to create a prolonged tension where the viewer is searching for something in the image but is unable to access, identify or categorise who or what it is in the frame. Photography is a medium predicated upon visibility, and the notion of representational visibility carries tremendous political weight. My practice and research, the field of photographic artists I’m drawn to and operate within, look for ways to invite more nuance into the equation of representational visibility, to complicate its terms and produce new queer states of being both seen and unseen by the camera at the same time. The potential for in/visibility and dis/appearance really underpins my whole interest in photography. Q: Tell me about the exhibition title, Iridescent. As well as speaking to the materiality of your costumes, how does it relate to the idea of disrupting the traditional narratives found in museums, and particularly the idea of ‘queering’ museum spaces? A: I set out to make images that would illuminate and celebrate queer stories of these SLM sites, but then I couldn’t find those histories – they didn’t exist in documentation. So it occurred to me that I just had to use elements of the museum collection to design my own, to think about how I could fabricate, construct and embellish my own ‘histories’. I discovered the use of the term ‘iridescent’ in relation to museum studies while researching the project. It describes the way history isn’t fixed or monochromatic but rather is in flux and is liable to shift depending on the viewer’s perspective. The term was perfect because it also resonates through the visual properties of the costume materials I use in this body of work – they shimmer, shift and sparkle, they attract the eye but at the same time deflect attention. Iridescent is a term that invites new perspectives on institutions like museums that can feel impenetrable; it invites the potential SUMMER 202110for othered subjectivities to approach museums in their own ways, to consider the stories and objects in these collections as movable rather than fixed. An important text for my research was Queering the museum by Nikki Sullivan and Craig Middleton (2021), which examines strategies for reorganising objects on display in museums to forge new relationships and conjure queer meanings. An object displayed on its own is constrained by its provenance and its cultural context, but when it’s placed alongside a seemingly unconnected object, inferences and insinuations can be made, new meanings provoked by considering the tale of these two objects together. My own approach to queering the museum is far less subtle, far more camp, irreverent and playful. I’m creating these elaborate queer creatures who break into and take over these spaces; they dramatically shift the context of the museum sites by transforming them into fantastic habitats of their own. It’s less about strategically rearranging objects to create allusions and more about jamming a 7-foot-tall lemon-yellow faux-fur creature into the specimen collection of naturalist Alexander Macleay at Elizabeth Bay House. Q: What new light do you hope to shine on SLM’s places and stories? A: I’d like to encourage people who maybe wouldn’t normally engage with these sites to visit them and consider them. I’d like visitors to think about how the history presented for them is a construction, and if they’re excluded from it, the creative ways in which they might engage with history – and, in the seeming absence of available heroes, to fabricate their own, which is what I’ve done. I’d like people to be seduced into engaging with these museums that otherwise might feel a little stuffy and cold, because these spaces belong to everyone. It’s exciting to think about how the spaces will be reinterpreted through this project, the ways they can be used and manipulated by other people who maybe have been left out of or erased from those histories. VISIT Iridescent by Gerwyn Davies is on display at the Museum of Sydney from Saturday 4 December slm.is/iridescent Museum of Sydney partners QUAY QUARTER SYDNEY, GROSVENOR PLACE Vaucluse House II , Gerwyn Davies, 2021. Sydney Living Museums. © Gerwyn Davies 11IRIDESCENT BY GERWYN DAVIESThe menagerie comes to the museum Bob Whight, Production Manager, Production & Experiences This summer, join the stampede to the Museum of Sydney to discover how hundreds of animals journeyed across the city to their new home at Taronga Zoological Park in 1916. How to Move a Zoo, a new interactive exhibition at the Museum of Sydney, creatively reimagines the scenes when animals big and small were moved from the cramped, barred enclosures of the old zoo at Moore Park in Sydney’s east to the largely natural and spacious surrounds of Taronga, picturesquely located on the northern shores of Sydney Harbour. The remarkable undertaking included many memorable moments – from a tiny sugar glider who made the journey in a zookeeper’s pocket, to Jessie the elephant slowly making her way on foot, public fears of lions on the loose, and some cheeky monkeys who did try to escape from their new home. These events and more inform a playful and inventive retelling of this little-known Sydney story that will appeal to visitors of all ages. Animals in the archives The exhibition was inspired by a series of around 100 glass-plate negatives held in the NSW State Archives’ Government Printing Office collection, documenting the animals in their old home at Moore Park and in their new enclosures at Taronga (see pages 14–19). Government records also held in the archives provide insights into the complex process of conceptualising, planning and ultimately building the new zoo. Correspondence, minute books and sketch plans of the animal enclosures all help to build a picture of this unique moment in time. Newspaper stories evocatively describing the event provided a compelling starting point for an imaginative re-creation of the journey. Illustrations © olliedavisillustration 2021 12SUMMER 2021Discovery and wonder How to Move a Zoo takes visitors on an exciting and interactive journey of discovery and wonder, created by the Sydney Living Museums team in collaboration with talented local and international artists and creative agencies. A team from Sydney- based creative experience design studio Grumpy Sailor, led by Tom Siddall and Jake Mu, worked with us to distil the incredible story to key compelling moments, told through interactive digital experiences. Newspaper articles from the time had already anthropomorphised many of the zoo’s animals; for the exhibition, their distinct personalities have been drawn out through sensitive illustrations by Ollie Davis, a children’s illustrator and mixed-media digital collage artist, and clever animations by Sydney-based motion graphics designer Jonty de Klerk. The animals guide visitors from the moment they arrive at the museum, leading them through the entry doors and connecting the story as it unfolds across the museum spaces. In the immersive digital experience you can see patient Jessie lumbering, Dizzy the hippopotamus roaring, and glimpse a cantankerous bear gesturing in frustration. To further bring the dynamic scene to life, We Love Jam Studios has developed a rich soundscape that reproduces the sounds of the zoo in delightful and surprising ways. In the museum’s entry cube is a whimsical kinetic bird sculpture by paper artists Samantha Gazal and Hester Clark. The fluttering silhouettes represent the 552 birds that were relocated to Taronga, and are accompanied by the sounds of the aviary (but minus the smell and the mess!). An incredible journey Visitors can join the animal parade by creating their own animal mask, snapping a selfie and adding it to the digital menagerie. There are also opportunities to quietly contemplate the reality of the animals’ lives in their dreary cages at Moore Park, and the significant contrast that Taronga afforded, brought to life through historical footage and images. Marvel at the feat of moving the zoo through an encounter with a selection of life-size animal sculptures. Part of Jessie’s journey, along Macquarie Street to Bennelong Point in the heart of Sydney, has also been rendered in miniature by model makers Yippee Ki-Yay. The story of How to Move a Zoo, Jessie’s journey and the creation of the model will feature in a documentary series, Tiny Oz, by production company Northern Pictures, due to air on ABC TV in early 2022. The visitor journey extends beyond the Museum of Sydney. In acknowledgment of the Zoological Society’s consideration of both Vaucluse estate and Harris Park in Parramatta as alternative locations for the new zoo, school holiday workshops will be held at Vaucluse House in January and Elizabeth Farm in April. A display at NSW Parliament House in February will showcase the captivating 100-year-old images that inspired the exhibition, and a series of talks, programs and tours delivered in partnership with Taronga Zoo will extend the experience across the harbour. Read more about the zoo animals’ incredible journey overleaf. VISIT How to Move a Zoo is on at the Museum of Sydney slm.is/howtomoveazoo Museum of Sydney partners QUAY QUARTER SYDNEY, GROSVENOR PLACE How do you move a polar bear? Take a look behind the scenes! 13THE MENAGERIE COMES TO THE MUSEUMHow to move a zoo Anna Cossu, Curator For six months during 1916, Sydney’s residents were woken by a cacophony of weird and wonderful noises. The zoo animals were on the move. In the early hours of Sunday, 24 September 1916, an elephant named Jessie walked out through the gates of the Zoological Gardens at Moore Park in Sydney’s eastern suburbs and began an extraordinary journey through the city. Accompanied by three keepers and followed in a car by Dr Robert Todd, a Taronga Zoological Park Trustee, she was shepherded along Dowling, Flinders, Bourke, Woolloomooloo and Palmer streets before crossing the Domain and continuing her journey down Macquarie Street to a waiting 14SUMMER 2021vehicle ferry at Bennelong Point. Jessie’s feet became sore as she walked on the hard road surface, and along the way a horse attached to a milk cart took fright and bolted. With a little coaxing, Jessie stepped onto the ferry, where she ‘stood as still as a rock’ during the 35-minute voyage across Sydney Harbour to her new home at Taronga Zoological Park. 1 Weighing around 4 tons (over 4000 kilograms), Jessie was the largest of the animals to be moved in an operation dubbed a ‘miniature Noah’s Ark’. Main image and inset Monkey enclosure overlooking the elephant house, Taronga Zoological Park, September 1916. NSW State Archives: Government Printing Office, NRS 4481 [7/16381] ST5909; Jessie and her keepers on board the vehicular ferry steamer Kedumba, Dr Todd, 24 September 1916. State Library of NSW: DL PX 165 15HOW TO MOVE A ZOO Hundreds of animals and birds walked or were carted or carried through the city to their new home. 2 Sydneysiders were drawn out to see the spectacle, alerted by the unfamiliar noises: Mournful yells from hyenas, angry roars from lions and tigers, good-humored snorts from gigantic elephants hauling a veritable menagerie of wild beasts confined in cages, have of late disturbed the early morning serenity of Sydney streets. 3 Moore Park: Sydney’s first public zoo The NSW Zoological Society (later the Royal Zoological Society of NSW) was established in 1879. Its initial aim was the ‘introduction and acclimatisation of song birds and game’, but attention soon turned to the establishment of Sydney’s first public zoological gardens. 4 The society secured a lease from the City Council of 7 acres at Moore Park known as Billy Goat Swamp, and in 1881 this was increased to 12.5 acres. From its inception, the society relied on government grants to develop and improve the zoo. An elephant was regarded as vital for the zoo to prosper – as a drawcard and for the income generated from rides. By the end of 1883, Moore Park had not one but two elephants. A male elephant, a gift from the King of Siam, arrived in July and was promptly named Jumbo after the African elephant made famous by P T Barnum’s circus. Jessie, purchased from the Calcutta Zoological Society, arrived in November. Jessie lived until 1939, and became one of Sydney’s most beloved zoo animals, the ‘children’s favourite’, ridden by thousands of visitors at Moore Park and later Taronga. She even entered the local lexicon, with the evocative description of an audacious person as having ‘more hide than Jessie’. By the early 1900s, the zoo boasted refreshment rooms, gardens and shelters for picnics, musical performances, animal rides, and displays of native and exotic animals, including an orangutan, a polar bear, ‘cages full’ of lions, tigers and leopards, as well as bears, dingoes and hyenas, a flock of flamingos, emus and songbirds. 5 While popular, it faced difficulties. The site (living up to its former name) was prone to flooding, it was dusty and windswept, and the trams and traffic that ran alongside were noisy. In 1902, the wallabies contracted bubonic plague, forcing the zoo to close for four months and the loss of numerous animals. Despite another small increase in land in 1905, taking the site to 15 acres, the zoo had outgrown its location. There was also growing criticism of conditions, with animals housed in small barred cages and enclosures with concrete floors and often little sunlight. NSW Zoological Society’s Ground, Moore Park, Sydney, Arthur Collingridge de Tourcey, 1882, hand-coloured engraving. Sydney Living Museums 16SUMMER 2021 From top This bear pit is one of two that can still be seen in the grounds of Sydney Boys and Sydney Girls high schools. ‘A happy visit to the zoo’, 5 May 1900, from Album 24: Photographs of the Allen family, 14 November 1899 – 4 November 1900. Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW: PX*D 569; Caged leopard at Moore Park Zoological Gardens, 1899. NSW State Archives: Government Printing Office, NRS 4481 [7/16289] ST1743 ‘… not worthy of a great and important city …’ 6 Change was needed, and a young and passionate advocate for reform was found with the appointment of Albert Sherbourne Le Souef to the role of secretary (equivalent to zoo director) of the Zoological Society in 1903. In 1908, Le Souef and Dr Robert Todd undertook a world tour of zoos, returning with a vision inspired by the bar-less open-air enclosures of the Hamburg zoo owned by Carl Hagenbeck, founder of the modern zoo. Various locations for the new site were proposed, including Long Bay, Upper Lane Cove, Harris Park, Tempe, Little Coogee Bay, Rockdale, Queens Park, Maroubra, Bondi and Vaucluse. However, Le Souef had his eye on a site at Bradleys Head on the northern shore of Sydney Harbour that offered bushland, coastal views and proximity to the city. In 1911, at an event during which Acting Premier Holman announced the government’s policy of ‘preserving the foreshores of Sydney Harbour for the people’, the president of the Zoological Society, Charles Hedley, put forth the case for a portion of Mosman’s Ashton Park to be reserved for the new zoo. 7 Appealing to civic pride, Hedley declared the ‘mean and unhealthy grounds’ of Moore Park ‘not worthy of this wealthy State, of this great city’ There was growing criticism of conditions, with animals housed in small barred cages and enclosures … From top Booklet produced for the opening of Taronga Zoological Park. Taronga Zoo Archives: SE/51/1; Official opening of Taronga Zoological Park, 7 October 1916. NSW State Archives: Government Printing Office, NRS 4481 [7/16381] ST5934 and claimed that Sydney deserved a zoo equal to other cities’ and on a par with public institutions such as museums, libraries and art galleries. 8 The following year, over 40 acres were set aside for the new zoo. A zoo in the making Taronga Zoological Park was carefully planned to take advantage of the site’s natural rocky slopes and to preserve as much of the landscape as possible. The new enclosures were formed from natural and artificial rock and – in the case of the seal ponds – imitation ice floes. Le Souef made models in plasticine and worked out the dimensions of the moats based on how far animals could leap; after all, there would be ‘nothing between the public and the animal but air space’. 9 As enclosures were completed, animals were introduced to test if they were escape proof. The rhesus monkeys happily obliged by escaping, whereupon the height of the walls was increased. Taronga Zoological Park was carefully planned to preserve as much of the landscape as possible. 18SUMMER 2021 Taronga Park Zoo views: ideal picnic resort, c1916. NSW State Archives: Government Printing Office, NRS 4481 [7/15981] ST8384 As the opening approached, the government offered a free day at the zoo for every schoolchild in metropolitan Sydney. While this was primarily a way of advertising Taronga, it also provided a much- needed moment of joy to children and their families living through the trauma and upheaval of the Great War. Between 100,000 and 120,000 children (along with their mothers and younger siblings) visited the zoo over several months under the scheme. Rushing and shouting they broke loose up the hillside, tearing across lawns and flower beds and spilling peanuts as they ran in a wild contest to reach the monkey cages first. There was something in the scramble which recalled that dash up another hillside – the dash by the elder brothers after the Turk at Gallipoli. 10 On 7 October 1916, in the presence of invited guests, Taronga Zoological Park was officially opened by Premier Holman. More than 100 glass-plate negatives documenting the early years of Taronga and the final days of Moore Park Zoo are housed in the collection of NSW State Archives. Recently digitised, these extraordinary images allow us to reimagine this unique Sydney story and meet the animals that delighted generations of Sydneysiders. 1 ‘Shifting an elephant’, The Evening News (Sydney), 25 September 1916, p4. 2 By the end of 1916, Taronga Zoological Park was home to 228 mammals, 552 birds and 64 reptiles. 3 ‘Sydney’s new zoo’, The Leader (Melbourne), 7 October 1916, p51. 4 J H Prince, The first one hundred years of the Royal Zoological Society of NSW: 1879–1979, Royal Zoological Society of NSW, 1979, p7. 5 Advertisements for Zoological Gardens, Moore Park, The Australian Star, 14 April 1900 and 11 April 1903, p2. 6 Deputation made by members of the NSW Zoological Society to Chief Secretary Hon W H Wood, 16 July 1909, Colonial Secretary, NRS 905 [5/7006] 09.37269, NSW State Archives. 7 Annual Report, Taronga Zoological Park Trust, 1916, Parliamentary Papers 1917–18, vol 4, NSW State Archives. 8 ‘For the people’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 21 July 1911, p6. 9 ‘The old zoo and the new’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 14 October 1916, p7. 10 ‘100,000 children’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 12 September 1916, p8. 19HOW TO MOVE A ZOO Next >