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The Herald charts the ups and downs of the creation of Sydney\u2019s newest cultural institution. See all stories.<\/a><\/p>\n Can you look a stranger in the eye for 15 minutes and glimpse their soul? Would differences dissolve, or loneliness evaporate in that sustained gaze?<\/p>\n These are the questions British artist Es Devlin poses in The Turning, her inaugural Australian exhibition and the headline international show opening the new $1 billion Powerhouse Parramatta<\/a>.<\/p>\n Devlin is celebrated globally for blurring the line between art and stagecraft, having designed concert sets for Beyonc\u00e9, Adele, Miley Cyrus and Lady Gaga, co-designed Super Bowl halftime shows, and shaped visual spectacles from London\u2019s West End to the Australian Open\u2019s player tunnel at Rod Laver Arena.<\/p>\n For the Powerhouse, she has assembled six art installations and arranged them into chapters on its fifth floor, with the final, an egg-shaped sound pavilion, serving as a stage on the museum\u2019s terrace and bearing the hallmarks of the set design she helped create for the Irish band U2 in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n Upstairs, at the heart of the show sits Collective Portrait, anchored by a 24-metre table holding a continuous paper scroll. Visitors take opposite seats, set a timer for 15 minutes, and sketch the stranger facing them. The resulting drawings join an ever-expanding communal tapestry hung across the gallery walls. Devlin has staged iterations worldwide \u2013 from London\u2019s National Portrait Gallery to Miami, Seoul and Sao Paulo.<\/p>\n \u201cDoesn\u2019t matter whether you can draw or not, I don\u2019t mind,\u201d Devlin explains. \u201cIt\u2019s more: can you look into the eyes of a stranger for 15 minutes and leave a trace of that encounter? There aren\u2019t many conditions currently in our society where you can safely look a stranger in the eye for that long.\u201d<\/p>\n The concept originated when Devlin invited 50 strangers into her London home, one by one. \u201cI didn\u2019t speak to them. I just looked into their eyes for 45 minutes and drew, and I found it deeply moving. What I expected of them, what I thought they might be, gradually fell away. If you don\u2019t speak, the things you disagree about don\u2019t govern the room.\u201d<\/p>\n The Turning is one of five shows debuting at the museum, including Task Eternal, The Dark, The Mall and Overflow. The LED screens and fabricated structures were installed at a cost of $10 million, contracts show. The show runs for 12 months only with an option to extend.<\/p>\n While an artist of Devlin\u2019s global stature might traditionally have launched at the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Powerhouse\u2019s Lisa Havilah approached the artist three years ago, via personal introductions, and asked her to open in western Sydney. It represents an unorthodox offering for a museum once touted as Australia\u2019s answer to the Smithsonian, her show replacing original plans for a planetarium.<\/p>\n Devlin says it wasn\u2019t always the case that the arts and science were categorised into specialities.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need both modes of attention,\u201d she says. \u201cWhat I\u2019ve felt in all the team that I\u2019ve been working with in this building over three years is their absolute passion about not separating. I went on a big tour of all the other exhibitions and this place is like a day out, and it\u2019s free. I think there are 1500 items from the collection in here, but they are contextualised in a thought-provoking way.<\/p>\n \u201cEntertainment gets a bad rap, doesn\u2019t it? But of course, its original meaning is entretenir \u2013 to hold people together. That is what cultural institutions need to do. To borrow Maya Angelou\u2019s insight, people will forget what you said and what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel.\u201d<\/p>\n Arts minister John Graham said the Powerhouse was not a traditional museum, a place where you simply look at objects in glass boxes.<\/p>\n \u201cInstead, it will provide a fresh new take on science, technology, and the arts,\u201d he said.The opening of Powerhouse Parramatta is a moment of celebration for all the people who\u2019ve been involved, and all the people who will walk through its doors and explore new worlds \u2013 in science, engineering, and the arts.\u201d<\/p>\n The Turning begins with Forest of Us, a poetic video narrated by Devlin that reveals the biological symmetry between the human lungs and forest canopies producing the oxygen to sustain life. Viewers then step physically through the screen into a mirror maze, akin to Coney Island, where they lose themselves in fractured reflections.<\/p>\n![\"Es](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/0b8661227be2c615af46e72f18199af5d9876d04.jpeg\")
Es Devlin inside the fractured mirror maze of The Forest of Us. Kate Geraghty![\"Forest](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/215d13f4f20813176cff43a12bfebe0a7bcff799.jpeg\")
Forest Of Us is one of five installations part of Devlin\u2019s immersive experience.Kate Geraghty<\/p>\n![\"Es](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/d1c73b598542b91f6a873a48a5e28dcb7be35df5.jpeg\")
Es Devlin inside Screen Share, another of the five installations.Kate Geraghty<\/p>\n![\"Workers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/a0bb0f29a4ab2bc348102e27c79795d478d1235a.jpeg\")
Workers install the stage and sculpture called Come Home Again, Es Devlin\u2019s sixth installation at Powerhouse Parramatta.Kate Geraghty<\/p>\n![\"Miley](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/5975174a21e11b7569fd5585b41cc33e9eea6be8.jpeg\")
Miley Cyrus slides down the model of her own tongue which Devlin designed on her 2014 Bangerz tour.Getty<\/p>\n
![\"Powerhouse](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/395c71624bb3c856624b1ef52b69acf2a2c9138a31e2e8e972fc00786d579119.gif\")
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