Justin Lamont - Shuttlecock Stool
Fukutoshi Ueno - Multi-Functional Stool
Fringe Furniture 2010 rediscovers the spirit of a landscape fast disappearing through this year’s theme The City has a Face, the Country has a Soul. As the urban sprawl continues its outward creep designers will imagine new possibilities for furniture and design.
In 2006, for the first time, over half of the world’s population lived in cities. Many have claimed that cities are our future, yet these urban centres drain 75% of the world’s resources while producing only 2%. In 2010, Fringe Furniture investigates the role of our outer-metropolitan and country places as sites for contemporary design and new ways of thinking about interactions in private and public spaces.
Alex Zanda Lee - The Lady Elizabeth Standard Lamp
Kate Stokes - Coco Shade (Photography by Haydn Cattach)
A keynote project of the Melbourne Fringe Festival, Fringe Furniture is an annual ideas showcase that has grown over its 25-year history to claim a critical position in Melbourne’s design calendar. An experimental playground of furniture, lighting, homewares, wearable objects, permanent and ephemeral works. The exhibition provides a platform for challenging work that moves beyond the brief, experiments with materials, and plays with form.
Exhibitors this year include:
Stuart McFarlane
· Stuart McFarlane, nominated as the No.1 Australian Design Graduate by Monument (2004), whose approach of “conscientious design” has gathered international interest through key publications, exhibitions and appointments. Stuart will present two works, including Lapel, a standard chair produced by folding 100% recycled HDPE plastic. In Lapel, the manipulation of material allows assembly in minutes without the use of glues or screws. In conjunction with a tool less assembly, the designed outcome can be cleanly dismantled and re recycled via domestic infrastructure as a No.2 grade.
Kate Stokes
· Kate Stokes is an emerging designer who recently received an Australia Council ArtStart grant to develop her own locally produced furniture range. For this year’s exhibition Stokes will present Coco Shade, a pendant light whose hand turned timber has a soul – no two units are the same – with a machine spun aluminium components that reflects the precise, designed nature of a cityscape.
Yellow Diva
· Yellow Diva are an established design practice whose approach to design is motivated by an invigorated, innovative modernism. Classic and enduring, Yellow Diva’s work KeepSafe is a cabinet bringing a rose-tinted nostalgia of Australian bush into the contemporary urban environment, with a close eye on sustainability – KeepSafe is designed to meet the requirements of Australia Post’s regular parcel service!
Daniel Barbera
· Daniel Barbera is successful furniture designer who has quickly established an innovative and well-regarded practice, in Yarraville. A previous winner of Best Lighting Design in Fringe Furniture, in 2010 Daniel will be exhibiting a large bronze and marble table.
John Hoogendorn - Aurora Light
Matthew Harding’s work in Fringe Furniture Alumni
Furniture / Interior | Where: Nationwide
“Fringe Furniture profiles an eclectic and provocative collection that challenges preconceived notions of what furniture design is, or might be in the future. The designers in this year’s exhibition have responded beautifully to quite a challenging theme, and I can’t imagine a more perfect place for them to reside than the stunning redeveloped Substation in Newport.”
Emily Sexton, Creative Producer
The Substation in Newport hosts this stunning exhibition of new ideas and experimental forms. Originally used to convert electricity for the railways for half a century, The Substation is now restored and converted into a community arts centre. Perched on the periphery, The Substation is the perfect site to explore how notions of the country can exist within the urban metropolis.
Exhibition Dates
Fringe Furniture 2010
When: 23 Sept - 10 Oct 2010
Times:
12.00-7:30pm, Thursday, Friday, Sunday
12.00-6:30pm, Saturday 25 Sept, 9 Oct
10.00-6:30pm, Saturday 2 October
Where: The Substation, 1 Market St, Newport
Cost: Free
Check out Fringe Furniture 2010
Check out Melbourne Fringe Festival
