ADC's exhibition program for 2017 celebrates the value and power of making in our lives through an exciting series of exhibitions and public programs featuring some of Australia’s most dynamic makers.
ADC's exhibition program for 2017 celebrates the value and power of making in our lives through an exciting series of exhibitions and public programs featuring some of Australia’s most dynamic makers.
Chili Philly: Crochet Social
2 February – 15 March 2017 - extended until 29 March.
Upstairs Gallery
Chili Philly: Crochet Social is the first major solo exhibition of crochet wearable art by Melbourne-based artist Phil Ferguson. Ferguson creates wearable crochet pieces that take the form of ordinary, everyday objects - from tacos to teabags - captured as self-portraits and uploaded to Instagram. Combining well-developed craft skills with a gentle, self-deprecating humour, Ferguson’s final self-portraits are a mix of video and photography capturing some of that awkward, lonely human experience. Ferguson is often called ‘The Lonely Boy’ and his use of Instagram was originally a way to make friends and find an audience for his work. @chiliphilly has been wildly successful, amassing more than 140,000 followers and the experience has created extraordinary opportunities for Ferguson and given him the chance to meet more people than he ever thought possible.
As part of the exhibition, ADC will present a series of events inviting audiences to join the crochet craze. Join us for an adults-only ‘Cocktails and Crochet’ night, kids’ workshops, artist talks, panel discussions and a lively local makers market in Darlinghurst featuring jewellery, costumes, glitz and glamour!
Presented as part of the 2017 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
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Edge In: Annie Gobel
2 February – 15 March 2017 extended until 29 March.
Lower Gallery
In collaboration with 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, ADC presents the first Sydney exhibition of Indonesian-born, Melbourne and Jakarta-based jeweller Annie Gobel. Edge In reflects Gobel’s interest in what was the first step of her childhood creative endeavours – a thick, bold outline. Working from the edge in, this line has lifted from the page to become the emboldened black edge of her wearable sculptures in this new body of work. Bounded by memories, they appear in candy coloured enamel and invite recollections of play, toys and childhood adventures. It is memories such as these that have been intrinsic to Gobel’s process as she seeks to ensure that the inherent freedom of childhood remains a part of the adult everyday.
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Object Therapy
6 April – 7 June
Upstairs Gallery
Object Therapy is an exhibition and project that explores creative transformation and notions of value and repair. Object Therapy is a project by Hotel Hotel. Developed in partnership with UNSW Art & Design and Australian National University.
The exhibition presents 29 broken objects that were submitted by members of the public before undergoing ‘therapy’. Items of furniture, ceramics, household appliances, textiles, jewellery, sentimental objects and even one human, were all treated and reimagined by noted Australian and international designers and artists including Trent Jansen, Liam Mugavin, Henry Wilson, Alison Jackson and Elise Cakebread. In transforming loved but broken items into objects of delight and surprise, Object Therapy showcases innovative design solutions while exploring the attachments we form with objects. It encourages us to rethink our material consumption while exploring and celebrating the role and creative possibilities of repair in society.
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LOCAL MILAN
15 June - 9 August
Lower Gallery
During this year’s Milan Design Week LOCAL DESIGN presented LOCAL MILAN, an exhibition showcasing eleven established Australian designers, curated by designer, stylist and creative director of LOCAL DESIGN, Emma Elizabeth. The exhibition was housed in the historic location Oratoria della Passione at Piazza Sant'Ambrogio within the 5 Vie district scenography and the designers exhibiting works were: Tom Fereday, Adam Goodrum, Charles Wilson, Tom Skeehan, Ross Gardam, Kate Banazi, Ryan McGoldrick, ACV Studio, Emma Elizabeth, Jon Goulder, Dowel Jones and Christopher Boots. On returning to Australia LOCAL DESIGN is showcasing a LOCAL MILAN reportage exposé within Australian Design Centre, featuring a mixture of memories and Milano moments within the William St location.
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Fracture: Differences
17 August – 27 September
Upstairs Gallery
FRACTURE: DIFFERENCES is a visual conversation between architectural photographer Shannon McGrath and digital craftsperson Marcus Piper that explores the interplay of light in abstract spatial environments.
The exhibtion features works printed on aluminium lit with fluorescent tubes, drawing the viewer into a dialogue between light, shape and space.
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Green Asylum
17 August – 27 September
Lower Gallery
Green Asylum is a large-scale experimental textile and video installation that blurs the boundaries between tapestry weaving and architecture, landscape and language by multi-disciplinary creative Charlotte Haywood.
Haywood’s architectural tapestry and video works tell stories within the Australian landscape seeking narrative and language from the past-present-and-future. Her work is influenced by ephemeral, temporary and sacred shelters, specifically the structures of Indigenous Australia, Asia, Euro-centric steeples and refugee tents from which she creates multi-threaded and multi-narrative architectural forms.
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Biotextilogy
6 October – 15 November
Upstairs Gallery
Learning from cells - the threads they spin and the tissues they weave. Biotextilogy features multifunctional textile design with hidden functions. Biomedical engineer Professor Melissa Knothe-Tate’s work replicates the natural weave of the tissue around human bones, using a Jacquard loom to research into a future of smart materials inspired by nature where disruptive technology meets design aesthetic and form-function-aesthetic.
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Bulay(i)
6 October – 15 November
Lower Gallery
Buku-Larrnggay Mulka & The Indigenous Jewellery Project
Bulay(i), a Yolngu Contemporary Jewellery project. Bulay(i), meaning rich jewellery, treasure or gold in Yolngu matha, focuses on Yolngu jewellery of north-east Arnhem Land at this multi-award winning, world-renowned art centre in Yirrkala. The first Contemporary Jewellery project held here, Bulay(i) focuses on maintaining, innovating and documenting traditional Yolngu jewellery practice and expanding jewellers' practice to include new techniques and materials such as metals, through workshops run by IJP founding curator Emily McCulloch Childs and Contemporary Jeweller Melinda Young, held in 2016 & 2017.
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Designing Bright Futures
30 November – 17 January 2018
Upstairs Gallery
The Australian Design Centre is proud to present, in partnership with UNSW Art & Design, Designing Bright Futures. Designing Bright Futures surveys eleven of the most outstanding 2017 UNSW Art & Design graduating students across Bachelor and Masters of Design fields including; jewellery, textiles, graphics, object, interactive and spatial design. Graduates will be chosen for the ways in which their work explores and promotes ideas of innovation and sustainable practice, capacity for social impact, commercial viability and the role of design in advancing well-being.
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Obsessed! Compelled to make
8 February – 24 March 2018
Upstairs Gallery
Obsessed! Compelled to make is ADC’s major national touring exhibition for 2017-2020. Investigating that uniquely compelling, frustrating and motivating drive to create, Obsessed! explores how obsession and a commitment to making shapes the lives and work of Australian designers, artists and craftspeople. Developed by ADC with support from a Visions of Australia research grant, the exhibition will tell the stories and experiences of some of the most respected and exciting makers in the country today asking: What is it about the making experience that drives designers, artists and craftspeople to dedicate their lives to a creative practice? What role does creative obsession play in the making process? How does obsession drive the development of skills and expertise? What kinds of obsessions do makers have – with materials, ideas or ways of making? And, what effects can creative obsession have on health, innovation and cultural wellbeing? By focusing on the notion of obsession and its particular hold over Australian makers – especially in light of current creative, social and economic climates – Obsessed! Compelled to make will offer a rich and fascinating study of the making experience in Australia today.
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Image: Elizabeth's Knitting Needles. Repaired by Kyoko Hashimoto and Guy Keulemans. From the exhibition Object Therapy. Photo: Lee Grant. Courtesy: Hotel Hotel.