In 2009 I received a Regional Arts Development Fund grant for concept development which enabled me to visit the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney to view their collection of vintage toys. I worked with a curator looking through the toys which languished in storage very rarely ever seeing the light of day. The curator allowed me to have a few toys out at a time and as I wasn’t allowed to touch anything myself, I directed her to move them (with her white gloves on) In this way we did set up quite a few scenarios and ‘conversations’ between toys, hinting at narrative and enjoying the potential stories that could emerge, which I then photographed and painted onto plywood.
Narratives were in fact plentiful and the potential for stories endless when the static objects were put into relationship with each other. The objects taken from museum storage and played with came into a new existence. Without the interaction they ceased to really exist beyond being merely a record, a sample of what had been.
