Sydney remembers fabulous 1980s

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The decade which produced Rubik’s Cube and the Sony Walkman may seem old-hat, but a new Australian exhibition dedicated to the 1980s is riding a wave of nostalgia for pre-digital days, its curator says.

Peter Cox, who has put together ‘The 80s are back’ at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum, says the generation that grew up watching “Dallas”, playing Pac-Man and listening to INXS and Wham! holds a fondness for those day-glo days.

“It was a simpler time,” he told AFP as the show opened.

“It was pre-9/11. While there was a kind of shadow of Cold War and impending nuclear apocalypse, at least you knew where the enemy was.

“It was before the digital era really.”

Hundreds of keen time-travellers have flocked to the exhibition since it opened this month, peering into screens playing pioneering video clips while Pat Benatar’s “Love is a “Battlefield” or Salt ‘n Pepa’s “Push It” is pumped into the room.

On display are the diversions of the time — arcade classics such as Galaga, Donkey Kong and Frogger — as the exhibition tracks gaming from Pac-Man to Space Invaders to Atari and Nintendo ‘Game & Watch’.

Costumes worn by Boy George, Kylie Minogue and Split Enz are on display, while a window into 1980s fashion features acid wash jeans, fluorescent aerobics leotards and shoulder-padded powersuits.

Cox said he wanted to create an exhibition of the popular culture — the television shows, music, movies, clothes and toys — of the time when Ronald Reagan was US president, AIDS was first recognised and the Berlin Wall fell.