PODCAST · arts
Object Matters
by Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney
The Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney's monthly podcast series. Host Dr Craig Barker asks guests to choose any one item to discuss from the museum’s collections of art, archaeology, natural history, science and culture.
Episodes
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52: The statue of William Charles Wentworth and Adelaide Ironside
In this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by historian and author Dr Kiera Lindsey. Together they discuss her new book on colonial Sydney artist Adelaide Ironside titled Wild Love. Together they examine speculative history, writing biographies and art in colonial New South...
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51: Fragment of terracotta cult statue from Cyprus
In this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Dr Anastasia Christophilopoulou, an archaeologist and curator at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and the 2023 Sir Charles Nicholson Lecturer. Together they discuss the Being An Islander project and associated Islanders: The...
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50: Heba Abd el-Gawad on Rethinking Egyptian Antiquities in Museums
In this special episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Egyptian archaeologist Dr Heba Abd el-Gawad. Together they discuss the unique role ancient Egypt plays in museums globally, the missing modern Egyptian voice in ancient Egyptian exhibitions, decolonising collections and…
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49: Transport amphora with shell encrustations
For this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Dr Natali Pearson of the University of Sydney's Sydney Southeast Asia Centre (SSEAC). Natali is a critical heritage scholar, so together they discuss her work on the maritime heritage of Southeast Asia, including her own work…
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48: Researching the Dru Drury butterfly collection
For this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by zoologist and 2023 Macleay Miklouho-Maclay Fellow Dr Angel Luis Viloria Petit, who has recently completed his research in Sydney, examining historic collections of butterflies. The Chau Chak Wing Museum houses the natural…
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47: Judy Birmingham and the Archaeological Excavations at Irrawang
In this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Chau Chak Wing Museum intern Isabella Trope. Isabella is a student at Macquarie University and has been researching a collection of ceramic sherds in the museum's education collection donated by Judy Birmingham in preparation of...
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46: UMAC and University Museums in the 21st Century
As the Chau Chak Wing Museum gets set to host the UMAC2023 conference, for this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by UMAC President and Chau Chak Wing Museum Research Fellow Dr Andrew Simpson. UMAC University Museums and Collections, an International Committee of ICOM...
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45: Carte-de-visite; photograph of the bird 'Didunculus strigirostris'
For this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Chau Chak Wing Museum colleague Jan Brazier, the Curator of History Collections. Together they discuss a carte-de-visite featuring a photograph of a bird taken by Sydney studio photographer Thomas Skelton Glaister in 1863. Not…
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44: Tracey Hands Up, by Michael Riley (1986)
In this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Chau Chak Wing Museum colleague Julian Woods, the museum's Public Engagement Co-ordinator. Julian discusses a photograph in the collection, acquired from the University of Sydney Union art collection in 2019, which Julian had...
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43: Two early x-ray tubes made by Harry W Cox
In this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Chau Chak Wing Museum colleague Kelsey McMorrow, who is curatorial assistant, science collections. Kelsey discusses two x-ray tubes made in the early twentieth century. Together they discuss the importance of science collections...
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42: The Nicholson Hermes
Marking National Archaeology Week 2023, in this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Associate Professor Lesley Beaumont, a classical archaeologist in the School of Humanities, in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney. Together they discuss one...
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41: Two ancient Athenian vases depicting dogs
In this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Classics PhD candidate and 2023 Fellow of the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens Alyce Cannon. They discuss two ancient vases from Athens relevant to Alyce's current doctoral research on dogs in ancient Greece. Using…
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40: Penelope & the Seahorse: Artist Mikala Dwyer
In this special episode of Object Matters, hear a live recording of a public event held in March 2023, when visual artist Mikala Dwyer is interviewed by Toni Ross about the Chau Chak Wing Museum's fourth contemporary art project titled Mikala Dwyer: Penelope and the Seahorse. The exhibition at…
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39: Coin of Roman Emperor Nerva and solar eclipses
For this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by university administrator, historian and former museum administrator Dr Toner Stevenson. Toner is the co-author with Dr Nick Lomb, of the new book Eclipse Chasers (2023). Using a coin of the Roman emperor Nerva, minted in 96 AD...
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38: An Electrotype of an ancient Lydian coin
On this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by art historian and current University of Sydney Museum and Heritage Studies Program postgraduate student Dr Ksenia Radchenko. Ksenia is also a museum educator. Ksenia gained her PhD in Russian art history from the University of...
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37: Two Ancient South Italian Red-figure Fish Plates
For this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Classicist and Greek cultural historian Professor Alastair Blanshard, from the University of Queensland. They discuss two of Alastair's favourite vases in the Chau Chak Wing Museum collection: two fish plates from ancient Magna...
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36: Ancient Egyptian stele
In this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Egyptologists and archaeologists Dr Melanie Pitkin and Pauline Stanton to discuss stelae and what they can tell us about ancient Egyptian society. Focusing on a stele (NMR.53) donated by collection founder Sir Charles Nicholson,...
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35: Lego Tutankhamun and Lego in a museum context with The Brickman
In this episode of Object Matters, the Brickman, Ryan McNaught joins host Dr Craig Barker to discuss his recent build currently displayed in the Chau Chak Wing Museum, Lego Tutankhamun. Together they discuss his career as a professional Lego builder, why he has worked with museums, how Lego is...
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34: Rethinking Ancient Egyptian Collections
In this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by museum archaeologist Associate Professor Alice Stevenson to discuss museum archaeology and a number of projects Alice is directing which is examining Egypt's dispersed heritage and how museums narrate collections of Egyptology.…
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33: Lantern Slide Portraits of King, Queen, Prince and Princess of Wales
In this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by cultural historian Dr Cindy McCreery. 2022 is a particularly important year for the British royal family with the Platinum Jubilee. It is also a period of transition for the institution. Together for this episode Cindy and Craig...
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32: Professor Dakin's photograph of snapping shrimps
For this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Curator of Natural History Collections at the Chau Chak Wing Museum Dr Anthony Gill. In the lead up to National Science Week and the new exhibition Australian Seashores opening at the Chau Chak Wing Museum in August 2022, they...
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31: Bronze Cast of Il Spinario
This episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Italian renaissance historian Dr Kathleen Olive to discuss Il Spinario, or the ‘Boy with Thorn’. Il Spinario is one of the most famous works of bronze to survive from the Hellenistic-Roman world, a depiction of a young boy...
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30: Photogrammetry recording of an Athenian tetradrachm
This episode of Object Matters marks National Archaeology week. Host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Madeline Robinson, Support Officer for the Department of Archaeology at the University of Sydney. In recent years Madeline has overseen a project of recording a number of Chau Chak Wing Museum…
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29: Alan Sonfist's Crystalline enclosure, 1970
In this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by art historian and author Nicholas Croggon. They speak on the Power Institute, the Power Collection and the Light and Darkness exhibition. Nick discusses a work in the Power Collection by American artist Alan Sonfist. Sonfist is a...
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28: Parts from prototypes of the Cotton Aerodynamic Anti-G (CAAG) suit
In this episode of Object Matters Lauren Poole, a writer and disabled postgraduate student of museum studies at the University of Sydney joins host Dr Craig Barker. Together they speak about the more than 100 rubber fragments of the "Cotton aerodynamic anti-G (CAAG) flying suit" in the…
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27: Plaster Cast of the relief Boston Throne
Host Dr Craig Barker is joined by classical archaeologist Dr Alina Kozlovski to discuss the tradition of plaster casts of Greek and Roman antiquities popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Using the Nicholson collection's century old cast of the Boston Throne as a starting point they…
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26: Chinese Willow Pattern Dish
For Lunar New Year 2022, Object Matters host Craig Barker is joined by art historian and art writer Dr Alex Burchmore. They discuss this 19th century Chinese Willow Pattern dish and explore how it represents a complex series of cultural interchanges and cross-pollinaion between China and England,...
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25: Deadly Delights - An arrangement of Jezebel butterflies
In this episode of Object Matters Matthew Huan joins host Dr Craig Barker to discuss several Australian Jezebel butterflies (genus Delias) from the museum’s Macleay Collection. Matthew is a Museums Collections Officer and entomologist at the Chau Chak Wing Museum, and has a long fascination with...
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24: A Late Bronze Age Cylinder Seal
In this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Damien Stone. Damien is an archaeologist and works in the Collection Management team of the Chau Chak Wing Museum. He is author of Pomegranate: A Global History and is currently working on a second project exploring the Hittite...
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23: The Pearson photographic albums of New Britain
Steven Gagau is an archivist and researcher with PARADISEC (the Pacific And Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures) - a digital archive of languages from the Pacific. Steven is also a co-curator of the Chau Chak Wing Museum's exhibition Pacific Views. In this episode of…
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22: Applied Arts
Cultural producer and artist Dr Sarah Goffman joins host Dr Craig Barker in this episode of Object Matters to discuss her current exhibition at the Chau Chak Wing Museum titled Applied arts. In this episode they discuss Sarah’s creative processes, her relationship with collecting and the use of...
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21: Campanian red figure bell krater by the Nicholson Painter featuring a warrior
In this episode of Object Matters host Dr Craig Barker is joined by Mediterranean archaeologist and Project Officer of the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens Dr Yvonne Inall to discuss her research into ancient spears and the Chau Chak Wing Museum’s red figure bell-krater from south...
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20: Hongi Hika’s wooden bust
Ngāpuhi leader and warrior, Hongi Hika (c. 1772 – 1828) was an important figure in Māori history. Hongi Hika successfully negotiated trade and missionary activities in the early part of the 19th century, living in Sydney from 1814 to 1819. In 1820 he visited England where he was feted by society...
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19: The faience shabtis of Djedher
Michelle Whitford is a doctoral researcher in Department of Physics and Astronomy at Macquarie University who has been conducting research on thousands of ancient Egyptian objects made from faience, including many from the Nicholson Collection at the Chau Chak Wing Museum, using new and…
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18: The Thylacine
Matthew Gibbs wears many hats. For eleven years he served as President for the Friends of the Nicholson Collection, but he is also the General Manager, Media and Communications at the ASX, a collector, and a lover of Shakespeare. He joins Dr Craig Barker to discuss one of his favourite collection...
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17: The Future of Museums
18 May 2021 was International Museums Day, an annual celebration created by the International Council of Museums (ICOM), designed to raise awareness about museums and their role in enriching culture and sharing knowledge. The theme for 2021 was The Future of Museums: Recover and Reimagine. Four...
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16: Thomas Hikade on Sir Flinders Petrie’s Diopolis Parva seriation chart
Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853-1942) is an important and somewhat controversial figure in the history of archaeology. The grandson of Matthew Flinders, Petrie rose from a surveyor to becoming the Professor of Egyptology at the University College London, where the Petrie Museum was…
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15: The Collection Managers
Behind the scenes it takes a mighty team to care for the Chau Chak Wing Museum’s vast collections. In this episode, Craig Barker invites nine CCWM Collection Management staff members to discuss how they document, digitise, register, monitor and care for the objects that matter so much to us all.…
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14: Dr Seppi Lehner on an Early Dynastic copper alloy axe from Ur in Iraq
Middle Eastern archaeologist from the University of Sydney Dr Joseph ‘Seppi’ Lehner speaks to Dr Craig Barker about a number of bronze and copper alloy objects in the Museum collection, recovered in the British Museum and University of Pennsylvania excavations at Ur in Iraq, directed by Sir…
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13: Two WWI photographs by Frank Hurley
In this special episode of Object Matters, Dr Craig Barker is joined by Toni Hurley, teacher, educator, historian, one-time president of the History Teachers Association and known to generations of school students as a co-author of the Antiquity series of textbooks. Toni is also the…
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12: Cellist by Walter Bowring
In this episode of Object Matters Dr Craig Barker is joined by Chris Jones the Chau Chak Wing Museum’s Collection Manager, Documentation. An oil painting by Walter Armiger Bowring (1887-1971) in the museum’s art collection titled Cellist of c. 1927 has long intrigued Chris. A musician in an…
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11: On artists Lindy Lee and Wang Youshen
Dr Shuxia Chen, Curator of the China Gallery at the Chau Chak Wing Museum, joins Dr Craig Barker to welcome the Year of the Ox with two artworks from the collection. Photocopy works by Chinese-Australian artist Lindy Lee and Beijing artist Wang Youshen from the late 1980s and early 1990s are...
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9: Neo Assyrian ivory plaque from Nimrud in Iraq
Conservation is one of the most important and often most misunderstood roles within a museum. In this episode of Object Matters Dr Craig Barker is joined by the Chau Chak Wing Museum’s former Conservator Alayne Alvis to discuss the function of conservation and the role of a conservator in the...
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8: Promesse de mandat territorial
Museums often amass much ephemeral material as well as collection objects; these ‘minor’ pieces can enhance our understanding of the broader pattern of collecting. In this episode, Dr Craig Barker is joined by Candace Richards, Assistant Curator of the Nicholson Collection. Together they discuss…
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7: Cerussite specimen from Broken Hill
Director David Ellis joins Dr Craig Barker to discuss his love of mineralogy and the remarkable history of a mineral from deep in the earth’s past, and its journey from Broken Hill to the Chau Chak Wing Museum. Cerussite is a mineral consisting of lead carbonate and as such is an important ore of...
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6: Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay’s jar of neurological specimens
What can a jar of tiny brains tell us about human history and the role of museums in contextualising colonisation? In this episode, Dr Craig Barker is joined by Dr Jude Philp, anthropologist and Senior Curator of the Macleay Collections. Together they discuss a jar of partially dissected bird and...
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5: Deep time in the Sydney basin
Deep time is a geological concept - the idea of unimaginable lengths of time. Our guest this episode is Matt Poll, Curator of Indigenous Heritage at the Chau Chak Wing Museum, who selects a stone axe to illustrate the deep time history of Sydney. The hand axe was found on the lands of the…
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4: JW Power and Femme à L’ombrelle
Senior Curator of the University Art Collection, Dr Ann Stephen introduces us to Dr John Joseph Wardell Power (1881-1943), painter, author, medical doctor and philanthropist. In this episode, Ann introduces his life and work by focusing on a single painting, Femme à L’ombrelle (c. 1926), in the...
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3: The scallop’s gaze: visual culture in the aquarium
Art historian Dr Ann Elias came across the haunting image of a scallop in an aquarium while researching ocean histories and early 20th century underwater photography. Captured by the camera while opening its valves, the scallop almost appears to be grinning at us. Dr Elias was immediately…
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2: Graveside Gifts - Three white ground lekythoi
When Dr Paul Donnelly first saw the grieving figures depicted on this trio of white ground lekythoi, he felt an instant human connection. Created in the 5th century BC, these Greek ceramic vessels were intended as a graveside gift for a departed loved one, filled with oil for use in their...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
The Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney's monthly podcast series. Host Dr Craig Barker asks guests to choose any one item to discuss from the museum’s collections of art, archaeology, natural history, science and culture.
HOSTED BY
Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Object Matters have?
Object Matters currently has 51 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Object Matters about?
The Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney's monthly podcast series. Host Dr Craig Barker asks guests to choose any one item to discuss from the museum’s collections of art, archaeology, natural history, science and culture.
How often does Object Matters release new episodes?
Object Matters has 51 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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You can listen to Object Matters on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Object Matters?
Object Matters is created and hosted by Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney.
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