Tickets
Dates
5:00 pm – 9:00 pm
10:00 am – 7:00 pm
10:00 am – 5:00 pm
10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Venue
Access
Accessible bathroom Wheelchair Access
Transparent explores how sustainable an object can really be. Thirteen emerging multidisciplinary designers come together to produce an exhibition that reveals the sustainable and not-so-sustainable methods within their own practices. Documenting their processes they explore new materials, production methods and ways in which better their overall impact on the planet.
Participants
Aidan Renata (He/Him) is a Melbourne-based textile designer specialising in hand crafted textiles that are punchy and lyrical, while simultaneously finding new ways to honor the process and materials involved. Initially trained in fashion design, Renata’s love of textiles stems from the observation that textiles have a dynamic and intimate role in all of our lives and the work produced is an iterative look into this relationship. Hand woven and hand knitted textiles are the focus of Renata’s works as these techniques offer a chance to be completely immersed in what is being created. His work has been stocked locally and internationally in fashion and homeware retailers, while also offering custom made pieces too.
Billie Civello (They/Them) is a designer-maker based on the lands of the Kulin Nation who recently graduated from an Associate degree of Furniture Design at RMIT. Billie designs with a reductionist approach to materials that allows their work to be dismantled or recycled for future use. Using this rhetoric they have explored steel, perspex, recycled clothing and plaster to create various objects and furnishings. While integrating narratives and motifs through a queer lens, Billies designs’ are also heavily informed by modernist principles.
Bolaji Teniola (He/Him) is an interdisciplinary designer based in Melbourne (Naarm/Birrarung-ga) and Adelaide (Kaurna) with experience gained in the Netherlands and Indonesia. As a qualified furniture designer and industrial designer from RMIT University, Bolaji aims to traverse various mediums, exploring materials and processes in search of pragmatic solutions that place equal importance on functionality and aesthetic appeal.
Working closely with materials, aesthetics and the senses, Chong Office brings together eccentric yet functional artworks that border furniture, sculptures and crafted objects. Refusing to be categorised by a particular style or identity, Chong Office embraces the ambiguity and contradiction throughout the creative process. The intimacy from personal interactions and experiences is intertwined in the outcomes of Chong Office, which bends the rules of what many consider traditional. It’s merely flexible.
Dalton Stewart (He/Him) lives on the lands of the Kulin Nation working across contemporary art, architecture and most recently furniture. He is undertaking a Master of Architecture at the Melbourne School of Design, with a research focus on queer theory and the reciprocal interactions between the disciplines of art and architecture. Dalton Stewarts practice gives form to ideas that experiment with simple materials and processes that appear formal and abstract. He designs objects that are informed by the language of minimalism and digital tools. The work contains narratives and themes related to the body, sexuality and poetics.
Jill Stevenson (She/Her) is an emerging multidisciplinary designer and artist based in Melbourne (Naarm/Birrarung-ga). Jill’s interests lie in speculative and experimental design, focusing on the intrinsic qualities of materials and their place in our landscape both natural and built. Her work is research driven and adopts a constant questioning of matter, shape and context. The resulting musings are often articulated into detailed pieces with a playful approach to both theme and form. Jill completed an Associate Degree in Furniture Design at RMIT last year, and is curious to explore how object and material should exist and enact change in our current consumption habits.
Julian Leigh May (They/Them) is an experimental designer, embracing a broad spectrum of disciplines and mediums within Melbourne (Naarm/Birrarung-ga). Their work transcends the barriers between art and design, from furniture, lighting and object design. Julian creates work that redefines the perception of everyday objects by sparking conversation through the combination of narrative, material experimentation and form. Julian is also one half of the creative duo behind misc objet, a collaboration between two friends focusing on building a diverse creative community through collaboration, exploration and curation.
Lana Erneste (She/Her) is a Melbourne-based artist working in sculpture and installation practice. She works across a vast array of mediums, predominantly utilising plaster and ceramics to produce work through various methodological processes and material experimentation. Along with material processes, she employs extensive research to establish a deeper understanding of concepts, allowing her to authentically and expressively translate them into physical form. Her interests include geological landscapes and objects, deep time, decision making theory and psychology.
LLh Studio is run by Lauren Lea Haynes (She/Her) in Melbourne (Naarm/Birrarung-ga). The studio focuses on exploring materials and technique within furniture design and sculpture. The designs and sculptures interchangeably draw from past design movements, art, architecture and nature to explore functional form in a modern setting.
Mietta Greig-Hurtig (She/Her) is an emerging designer from the lands of the Kulin Nation. Mietta began studying a bachelor of Design at Swinburne University of Technology, however very quickly felt something was missing, finding that her experience within this course did not allow enough options to create with your hands and allow you to realise ideas in a three-dimensional form. Mietta made a quick decision to leave Swinburne after her first year and move to RMIT’s furniture design course. Mietta was drawn to RMIT’s furniture design course due its practical nature, looking to explore the design process from ideation to realisation. During the two years at RMIT her approach to design has been based around exploring varying materials, textures and finishes to create pieces that are tactile, layered, playful and sculptural. Mietta was inspired during her time at RMIT to challenge herself to explore different manufacturing methods, finishes and working with different materials hoping to create pieces that showcase this exploration. Going forward Mietta is excited to extend her knowledge and practice in design and making.
Ryan Mueller (He/Him) is a multidisciplinary designer specialising in environmental, branding and product design. Injecting a sense of integrity and authenticity in his design, he is constantly seeking new knowledge and diversions that elevate his design repertoire. Ryan loves to celebrate a notion of resourcefulness and accessibility within his design. With use of what could be considered banal materials, he is interested in using resources that appear natural within a sourcing process that, in a way, dictate and influence his design. He states: “I design with full transparency, authenticity and exploration. I want my design to be responsive, impactful and realised, designs that have meaningful rationale that I am proud and excited to share. Community is something that we have all lost touch with recently and I am excited to be surrounded by a thriving and progressive design community in which we have so locally here in Naarm (Melbourne).”
Sam Blomley (He/Him) is a Melbourne-based furniture designer and craftsperson. His practice includes working with wood and metal in explorative, self-developmental ways that mimic folk-explorations of found materials. Much of his work functions as documentation and response to the natural and built environments that the objects will later reside in. He believes that sustainable design is a subset of sustainable living practices that center family and culture, and that only through living presently in our own stories and spaces will we achieve a wholly sustainable way of living. Sam carries an appreciation of space and objects inherited from his family, an understanding of social living inherited through his chosen family, and a deep compassion for our near and far lives that comes from his widest family.
Tess Pirrie (She/Her) is a 26 year old emerging designer based in Melbourne (Naarm/Birrarung-ga). Her practice spans across furniture, object and material development. Tess’ designs are playful and experimental as she is interested in creating unique pieces, trialing new techniques and exploring what is possible to expand her practice. Tess is also one half of the creative duo behind misc objet, a collaboration between two friends focusing on building a diverse creative community through collaboration, exploration and curation.