Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Ruru presents 'STRANGER THAN FICTION'!

Sorry we've been out of touch for so long!  We had a few things to sort out before enlightening you about our newest Ruru project, but we're good to go now ...

Ruru is happy to announce a brand new project, presented to you in conjunction with Team Heritage.  Label writing is going fictitious!!!

Image courtesy of the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney

We've borrowed a brilliant exhibition concept from the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney and adapted it for Puke Ariki.  In 2009, the Powerhouse staged an exhibition called The Odditoreum.  It involved pulling an intriguing range of 'odd' objects out of the museum's collection and inviting children's author Shaun Tan to write completely fictitious labels for each object.  The museum then invited visitors to write their own imaginative labels and display them for other visitors to enjoy.

Image courtesy of the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney

The Odditoreum was incredibly successful and resulted in some spectacularly imaginative feats of label writing.  We thought, "that sounds good enough for us!"  So we have adapted the idea for Puke Ariki, choosing a range of unusual, unexplained and uncommon objects from the Heritage Collections.  They will be displayed in the main temporary exhibition gallery while all the foyer redevelopment kerfuffle is going on.  Like in The Odditoreum, the public will be encouraged to write fictional labels about our collection objects.  In case the title of this blog didn't give you a clue, the exhibition is called Stranger Than Fiction and will be opening on Thursday 12 May 2011 from 6pm until 7.30pm

Instead of inviting a famous author to write imaginative labels to 'seed' the exhibition, we thought we would extend that courtesy to YOU!!!  You guys have been writing AMAZING object labels, so who needs a children's author to get us started??!!  After the success of the last Ruru launch, we figured you all needed another excuse to get together.  Therefore, we are inviting you (plus partners & kids!) to come on down to the temporary exhibition gallery on Thursday 12 May, have a drink and help us write some fanciful labels to get Stranger Than Fiction underway. 

It will also be an opportunity to recognise and celebrate our new round of personalised label writers ... we haven't forgotten about you, we promise!  AND it was going to be the temporarily displaced iSITE's housewarming party, but word on the street is their move into the temporary exhibition gallery has been postponed by a few weeks.  But we can still have a drink in their honour anyway!

So join us on Thursday 12 May to marvel at our amazingly unusual collection objects and to write us some awesome labels.  Let your imagination run riot ... the stranger the better!

(and here's just a little taste to whet your appetite):

What is it???


What is it used for???

Eeeek!!!  That looks scary!
(or at least Stranger Than Fiction!)