When Edie Kurzer is designing costumes for film and TV, she often takes inspiration from found objects. It’s a similar approach to how she has curated these cabinets of curios and memorabilia. Like the details of a costume, when presented together as a collection these objects become more than the sum of their parts. According to Kurzer, “each of the objects have a story to tell, brought together by the common denominator of the moving image”.
Within the cabinets, examples such as the Pez collection or the character figurines celebrate familiar film and TV characters that have escaped the frame and live on as part of our collective memory. Kurzer also acknowledges the behind-the-scenes roles of various creative departments in film and television production through the display of everyday items that are commonly used – a paintbrush, a pair of scissors or a handy wire coat hanger.
In collecting, creating and curating these objects for display, Kurzer adheres to her rule of avoiding the obvious and celebrating the unexpected.
You can see examples of Edie Kurzer’s costume work in The Story of the Moving Image.
Artist bio
Edie Kurzer is a celebrated Australian designer. Twice she has won the AACTA Award, the most prestigious prize for costume design in Australia, for her work on the iconic 6 part TV series Picnic at Hanging Rock (Foxtel /FremantleMedia) and the highly lauded ABC mini-series Molly. With Picnic she also won the coveted Australian Production Design Guild’s prize and in 2019 won it once more for the feature film Judy & Punch.
Over the past twenty-five years in Australia Edie has made crucial contributions to major productions such as: the Gillian Armstrong-directed documentary feature film Women He’s Undressed (about Orry Kelly); the influential TV mini-series Secret River and Violent Earth; and the feature films South Solitary (starring Miranda Otto), Look Both Ways, Matching Jack, and Thank God He Met Lizzie (starring Cate Blanchett, Richard Roxburgh and Frances O’Connor). She also designed costumes for Josh Thomas on his ground-breaking television series Please Like Me (season 4).
Internationally, Edie has worked with director Bill Bennett on both In a Savage land and Tempted (starring Burt Reynolds and Saffron Burrows) and with the renowned British film and theatre director Mike Leigh on the Royal Stratford Theatre’s production of A Greek Tragedy (London/Edinburgh/Sydney).
Edie has also collaborated in vital cultural and educational projects in Indigenous communities in major cities and in remote regions of Australia.
Related works
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How to watch
Collection
In ACMI's collection
On display until
16 February 2031
ACMI: Gallery 1
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
Curatorial section
The Story of the Moving Image → Foyer → Entry → FSF-02. Fed Sq Foyer Cabinets
Materials
Mixed media installation