Design exhibitions have always played second fiddle to art exhibitions. Perhaps this is because, in order to sell their work, the artist must exhibit it, whereas the designer can sell it via a manufacturer who makes and sells it for them.
However, the benefits of design exhibitions cannot be underestimated. Apart from online, an emerging designer may have no other way to show their work when first starting out.
For the second year in a row, Object Future gives emerging designers the opportunity to exhibit, this year at Allpress Studio in Melbourne. The co-curators of the show, emerging curator Suzannah Henty and emerging designer Dale Hardiman, have sought out some exceptional design from some great fresh talent this year.
One of the most beautiful is Jonathan Ben-Tovim’s Up-Down Light, a weighted pendant light which uses materiality to reimagine a historical typology, using rough hewn volcanic glass as a weight to contrast with the precision of its polished shade. Also reinventing history, Guy Keulemans was inspired by the Sherman L Kelly-designed ice cream scoop of 1935, reinventing it in copper, a process which yields an imperfect result. The finished object is then ‘repaired’ prior to sale and made functional with tin and resin.
Also concerned with materiality, Amos Enders-Moje of Mo-En Design has three objects in the exhibition including Urchin pendant light. While the beauty of these glass products is obvious, the hidden story behind them is what makes them outstanding. The material used is waste, mostly from the hospitality industry, and Enders-Moje has taken this sustainable approach one step further, using the by-product sludge of the process in the creation of more design pieces, with the aim of becoming a zero-waste studio.
Reinventing object typologies too, Jeremy Grey and Jon Gourlay from Henty have created Wingman, an ingenious redesign of the garment bag that’s rollable, while Smile Makers has created a series of design vibrators in playful colours, with each featuring a shape inspired by a character – the fireman, the Frenchman, the millionaire and the tennis coach.
With over 90 artist-run initiatives thriving in Australia, design has some catching up to do, but exhibitions such as this provide a blueprint for similar projects around Australia.
In all, the exhibition contains 20 objects by nearly as many designers/studios. I will be opening the exhibition on 27 June at 6pm at Allpress Studio, 84 Rupert Street, Collingwood, so please come along if you are in Melbourne.
More about Object Future