Although I wasn’t able to make it to Melbourne for this one, I feel that I have gotten to know Australian designer Elliot Bastianon’s work over the years and am excited to share information and images of his new exhibition “Analogue and Alchemy”, currently at C Gallery. Furthering his previous explorations of electroplating and patination, Elliot’s new series is made in collaboration with Punjabi master coppersmith Hari Krishan.
Elliot visited North India from his current home base in New Delhi in order to learn about the metalwork techniques of the Thathera community, who are renowned for their hand-forming copper and brass vessels, a skill passed down through the generations and recognised by UNESCO as an endangered form of intangible cultural heritage.
This snippet from the gallery’s website describes the main piece of the show:
“The free-standing sculpture, Column, in ANALOGUE AND ALCHEMY states the show’s premise directly. The copper domes, stacked upside down, one on top of the other, surrender their function and declare their purpose as symbolic objects. By doing so ANALOGUE AND ALCHEMY invites the audience to consider the collision of two great traditions: that of local craft against globalised industrial systems.
“This tension has been in play since the emergence of the Arts & Crafts Movement in the mid-19th century, in direct reaction to the Great Exhibition, London 1851, and is played out here by Bastianon, an Australian designer/maker, working with Hari Krishan, a senior member of the Thathera community.”
Exploring materials, form and creative serendipity, the resulting pieces are weighty, smooth, rough, masculine forms that refuse to be functional, but use the materiality of the industrial in totally new ways. Analogue and Alchemy is now on at C Gallery in Melbourne until 21 August.
More on Elliot Bastianon
More on C Gallery
