Velvet, Iron, Ashes @ State Library Victoria
The State Library of Victoria has just finished their latest major renovation, bringing to a close more than five years of work that has significantly upgraded the public facing spaces of the Library.
At the heart of Vision 2020 was the refurbishment of the Library’s incomparable heritage spaces, the creation of innovative new spaces for children and teenagers, and the reinvention of our services as we embrace new technologies and promote digital literacy and creativity for all Victorians.
The ambitious program has ensured that the Library continues to evolve to meet the changing needs of our vibrant, diverse community, both in Melbourne and in regional Victoria, today and into the future.
The design was led by an international, award-winning team combining the talents of Australasian design firm Architectus with Scandinavia’s Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects, and opened to the public on 5 December 2019.
Vision 2020 was an $88.1 million project funded by $60.4 million from the Victorian Government, with the remainder raised through philanthropic support.
More of the corporate line can be found here.
(And full disclosure; I’m working with Creative Victoria and members of my team have been intimately involved through the project — so I’m not going to be commenting much on the overall scheme…)
Appropriately, I’ve chosen to avoid the current extreme heat, and write this from within the Library itself — and in one of the ‘new’ spaces, the Ian Potter Queens Hall. It’s an incredible space to work; and the generosity of space is one of the hallmarks of the project.
The ‘before’ shot:
And after:
Exhibitions @ SLV
Over the past decade the State Library has had a varied strategy in terms of both long term and temporary exhibitions — which range from very collection (“realia” in library-speak) focussed long term exhibitions such as “The changing face of Victoria”, to temporary ‘blockbuster’ type mega exhibitions like the Victor Hugo Les Miserables: from Page to Stage designed as a promotional tie in with the new production Les Misérables in Melbourne in 2014.
The smaller exhibition space nearest the Swanston St “Welcome Zone” (the Keith Murdoch gallery) doesn’t have a new show for the reopening, the long term exhibits originally created for the Dome reopening in 2007, The changing face of Victoria, and World of the book remain, and the Cowen Galler(ies) have a range of paintings and photography, but the significant new addition to the exhibits is the Victoria Gallery.
Velvet, Iron, Ashes is the inaugural exhibition in this new gallery endowed by the John and Myriam Wylie Foundation through an $8 million donation.
The gift is supporting this gallery space, dedicated to “the history of Victoria”, as well as upgrades to the Russell Street entrance (which had been closed since 2002, reopened in 2018) and a new cafe at the library’s eastern end.
The gallery occupies heritage space that at one point housed the National Gallery of Victoria. For those interested in the ongoing tale of renovations and change across these buildings, the ABC has a nice illustrated timeline (although it does omit the whole role that the Museum and Gallery played in the precinct!)
A more complete year by year with the on-again-off-again room mates that are the Library, Gallery and the Museum can be found here:
And everything up until 2013 represented visually:
This video was produced for a previous exhibition “Free, Secular and Democratic” about the building of the Library in 2014.
Velvet, Iron, Ashes
There is a great intro video from the curator — which sets it up better than trying to describe it…
Hiding in plain sight
There is a range of display techniques here from open display, behind glass, animated backdrops, audio and models — it’s a great mix. But some of the displays are placed behind doors and drawers — this section is focussed on McRobertson Confectionary.
While some of the images and objects (including a surreal recreation of sugar lobster, which I failed to take a shot of) perhaps gain something from the “reveal”, not sure there is a lot to be gained by opening a door to be rewarded with a short stock image loop of fairy floss. Some of the items are visible immediately — so I’m not sure quite what the logic is about what was shown, and what was a reveal. In this set of items as well as another similar display focussing on cricket, the objects seemed to me like they’d be stronger simply shown as they are. Watching visitors confirmed that few bothered to actually open all the panels or drawers: a lost opportunity.
The Map-o-Matic
This touchscreen/faux-trolley provides a neat conceit of having you choose two objects from the display, and then prints you a ‘custom’ itinerary within the exhibition that links the two. Kind of like “Six degrees of Kevin Bacon”.
The interface is slick and simple. The icons that represent the objects for the most part are fairly easy to match to objects you have seen in the exhibits — but some are a little obtuse. Nice, playful animations step you through the process.
Once you are done, the machine spits out a thermal paper map and tour guide, complete with new information seemingly unique to this mode (ie. it doesn’t seem to be in the card file information). This narrative links each of the objects.
In general, this is fun — but the narratives that ‘link’ the objects are sometimes pretty tenuous. On the left you can see the last three objects that are linked are Nappy Wash ad, an SEC Magazine, and a photo of an air-race crew. The link through all is ‘electricity’, which is pretty slim. The maps aren’t particularly legible in the print out (you can see how three of the points of interest overlap in the right-hand tour) and I’ve no idea how you could take 16 minutes to complete either of these tours in such a small gallery.
That all said, the notion of customised tours is great. I love the playfulness of just picking two ‘random’ things and exploring. But given the vast building with so many items on display across the State Library I wonder if the Map-o-Matic would be better located in the two “Welcome Zones” of the library and could encourage me to explore the entire building? Perhaps take away the need to link every item in the exhibition to every other, loosing the weak connections between objects and just have other curious or unexpected concepts that link across the entire facility?
The souvenir aspect of the map is also fun — but wonder if there is a missed trick with what happens when I get home? Feels like there could be the opportunity to reconnect, or prompt me to sign up to social following etc.
The Card Catalogs
I understand nostalgia as a powerful function in exhibition design, and that card catalogs are a dying feature of libraries. So it makes sense that there is an appeal here to the way labels have been approached in this exhibition.
The cards themselves are a mixture of basic tombstone data with the occasional longer story or background. Many of the descriptions don’t fit onto a single card so take the 1/x type sequencing.
The card catalogs are playful and tactile. They do feel lovely to fossick through, and there is obviously a huge amount of work that has gone into the design, printing and setup (and I’m sure the inevitable updates and changes!) of this system.
The notion of having the card catalog however has resulted in a fairly sub-optimal ways of exploring the objects on display. In the images below you can follow the trail of one item…
I’d suggest this is the exhibition design equivalent of burying the lede! Undercover agents, international intrigue, interstate-rivalry…
There are loads of great stories in this exhibition. I hope people have the persistence to find some of them that are more hidden.
Oral Histories
There is little ambient sound in the exhibition, bar the occasional analog phone ring. It’s these sets of phones which allow you to ‘dial’ a story (something that must be alien to many younger visitors?) to access a series of snippets from oral histories. A great way to ensure that oral histories make their way into the story…
Seating
No exhibition can ever have enough seating; but this one provides loads — generous, comfortable and welcoming. No afterthought benches to be seen…
Accessibility
The little trollies in the two seating areas have large print versions of the card catalogs. These are also lovingly produced, high quality items. Not the average laminated A3 afterthought.
Overall
This definitely a step-up from the far more ‘traditional’ approaches taken in the long term galleries upstairs. Playful, colourful and working across the collections — not just coming from a starting place of ‘books’ and then some other things which I find library based exhibitions often suffer from.
And yes, this is where the Ned Kelly armour is now. It’s front and centre in the room, with the original Kelly Gang movie (courtesy NFSA) nearby. Some things will never change :)
