POWERHOUSE PARRAMATTA

POWERHOUSE PARRAMATTA, 34-47 Phillip Street, Parramatta. Snaps: the exoskeleton; Es Devlin; the billabong-ette

At last, the $915 million-plus Versailles of Parramatta is open. And, appropriately, at one of its in-house eateries, Simara, you can eat cake. Warm-from-the-oven madeleines. Not basboosa, nor sfouf; not masala doodh nor gajar ka halwa, nor lamington nor a scone – all of which would reflect the Australia beyond the massive walls of glass. Instead: a madeleine – and a cup of tea for dunking, and go the full-Proust.

It’s one of the strangenesses of the new museum. Or is it an art gallery? Much of the opening exhibit would be just as at home at the MCA – or in Naala Badu at the AGNSW. In particular, the brilliant, must-go-back five-piece installation, The Turning, by Es Devlin. If you’re wondering, the English artist is not a pretentious rapper; she was christened Esmerelda.

Initially a theatre designer, her vivid imagination and hold-your-nose-and-jump attitude to the world took her to the London Olympics (closing ceremony), the Rio Olympics (opening ceremony), Kanye West tours, then Beyonçe, Adele, U2 and more. Aside from stadium spectaculars, her enduring interest is the micro: human contact, survival, and communication. Each of the “rooms” of The Turning is an invitation to stop, look, listen, think, and connect. Devlin has the chutzpah and vision of Tracey Emin without the inbuilt aggro.

At the other end of the Must See spectrum, it’s a tie between two exhibits: The Mall and Overflow. The Mall should be fascinating and deep in the territory that Olde Powerhouse fans might hope for. It’s a potted history of the origins and evolution of the shopping mall with items – including the red neon “Parramall” entrance sign to a local shopping centre – from the collection. How we went from Mr Green the Grocer wrapping a quarter of tea in brown and tying it with string, to Con the Fruiterer and eventually to - omigod - choosing your own from acres of shelving. But it’s a bit beige.

Overflow, on the other hand, is a poor attempt to fulfil the Indigenous presence imperative, and a gimmick: a shallow billabong-ette in a vast, rough-white-floored room whose water level rises and falls over half an hour. It’s supposed to mirror the movement of the river beyond the glass. You can paddle in the water if you like. You can sit on a bench and watch the water. Or you can try to listen to the seven short community docos that screen on the one wall that isn’t glass. The unforgiving acoustics mean hearing what’s being said by various aunties and elders is tricky. It’s about water.

“Made especially for children” is The Dark. Yes, it’s dark in a series of glistening caverns, but don’t expect the suspended aeroplane, gigantic steam engine, bonkers treasures of the old Powerhouse. These kids must needs be very small, with some nooks and crannies below adult knee level, which is irritating if your inner child insists on you going arse-up to see what’s what.

There’s a big cabinet of curiosities featuring stuff from the collection, although a four- or five-year-old wouldn’t be able to see in and not enthralled by an ancient Etruscan vase anyway. But being lifted up for the mushrooms and jewels would be good. For the owner of the inner child, it’s interesting to discover, among the slabs of crystal, that Percy Marks was a pioneer of the opal and named the Black Opal!

The current paid exhibit is Task Eternal, “the largest aerospace exhibition in the southern hemisphere”. Celebrating the opening, our astronaut Katherine Bennell‑Pegg is on hand to thrill the kiddies and space nuts. I have to admit that after four hours exploring all the above, the desire to trace “humanity’s enduring quest to defy gravity, take flight and journey into the sky” was not my enduring wish.

Gravity won (there are many sitting possibilities) and always those vast glass walls to peer out across the plainest aspects of Parramatta. And you can think about what a fabulous view they have of the exoskeletal magic of the museum. And also – aside from Devlin, what is there to go back for? How much does the aircon cost to run? Crucially, what is there – honestly – for kids? Because kids were the raison d’etre of the old Powerhouse – why they dragged you back every school holiday and beyond. Is someone working on the next version of 1001 Remarkable Objects? Because that’s the kind of show that will bring in the folks, not just once but over and over. Right now the question has to be: and then what?