Shot Notes

John Howard opened the Museum of Australia back in March 2001. Designed by Ashton McDougall and Robert von Hartel Trethowan, the anodised aluminium panels on the outside of the building have words in Braille saying “mate” and “she’ll be right”. Controversially silver discs were attached to the building to mask the words “sorry” and “forgive our genocide”. The architects have a very elaborate way of describing their construction which includes the statement: “Instead of any singular entity we envisaged a series of intense adjacencies, like puzzle pieces, as if testing plausibility, as if each became an evocative typology, as if each belonged to another language, encouraging translation, encouraging hope in an exegesis of promise”. I say “What’s the angle?” This simple shot challenges the PEN to effectively deal with contrasts, and it excels.