Hyde Park Barracks – Legacy
A lasting legacy within the walls of Hyde Park Barracks. Three poetic content-led installations tell human stories and bring history to life.
Agency
Grumpy Sailor
Practice Area
Client
Sydney Living Museums
Industry
The Challenge
How can we connect to the real worlds, stories, and lived experiences of those who have walked before us? The major renewal of the Hyde Park Barracks set out to craft an experience that would capture the emotion and true historical value of this Sydney institution. Coinciding with the building’s 200th anniversary, the renewal project aimed to tell poetic and human stories of the Barracks’ past and legacy, through a participatory and deeply meaningful visitor experience. We created three immersive installation pieces to contribute to this narrative.
Project Vision
The exhibition served as a gateway, connecting us to place, past, empathy, First Peoples’ perspectives and our own imagination. Life-size video portraits act as a coda to the experience, with descendants sharing the remarkable stories of their own connections to the Barracks, as well as thoughts on the Barracks’ history, and its impact on First Peoples’ communities.
Life size video portraits of descendants sharing stories of their connection to the Barracks
Grumpy Sailor
Life size video portraits of descendants sharing stories of their connection to the Barracks
Grumpy Sailor
Intimate textures drift and flicker over the sculptural forms of dresses, accompanied by the spoken memories of their owners: young women journeying to the colony of NSW
Grumpy Sailor
Intimate textures drift and flicker over the sculptural forms of dresses, accompanied by the spoken memories of their owners: young women journeying to the colony of NSW
Grumpy Sailor
Design + Execution
Moving through the space, visitors are immersed in the stories of those with connections to the Barracks, both past and present. The three immersive installations are situated inside Hyde Park Barracks, a UNESCO World Heritage-listed site in the heart of historic Sydney.
While our team played a small part in the overall experience, the real success of this project was in the way contribution was organized. The tight timeline provided an opportunity for several local Australian companies to play a part and contribute to the broader vision. We hope the success of this project will propel our dynamic and capable local Australian teams even further onto the international stage.
9-metre projection mural reveals the Barracks’ former use as a women’s asylum
Grumpy Sailor
Intimate textures drift and flicker over the sculptural forms of dresses, accompanied by the spoken memories of their owners: young women journeying to the colony of NSW
Grumpy Sailor
Project Details
This linear storytelling brings history to life with outstanding production quality and a refreshing use of projection on uneven surfaces such as dresses and the living quarters of the original building.
This digital narrative experience is evocative and intimate. The life-size portraits and textural projections over the draped and unprotected dresses establish a level of vulnerability and one on one tone for the storytelling experience. In contrast, the larger-than-life projections envelop the viewer in the historical magnitude.
Design Team
James Boyce (ceo/ecd)
Mike Daly (creative director)
Tom Siddall (technical director)
Pete Ward (editor)
Matt Roberts (project manager)
Mark Shunji Davies (executive producer)
Dinusha Ratnaweera (line producer)
Collaborators
Local Projects NY (lead exhibition designers)
‘Dresses’ (sculpture and projection)
Elizabeth Gadsby (production designer for dresses)
Rob Morton (cinematographer)
Michael Price (art director of film content)
‘Asylum’ (wall projection)
Anna Fraser (designer and motion designer)
Katie Milwright (cinematographer)
Ant Miller (art director)
Photo Credits
Grumpy Sailor Creative
Open Date
March 2020