Broached Commissions, the first significant Australian installation of limited edition design furniture, lighting & objects, launched  in Sydney last week. The annual selling exhibition steered by Lou Weis, in partnership with Euroluce co-owner Vincent Aiello, invited Australian designers Trent Janson, Adam Goodrum, Chen Lu and Charles Wilson, along with installation artist Lucy McRae, and Brit Max Lamb, to respond to the curatorial brief set by John McPhee – each work exploring the applied arts in a specific part of Colonial Australian history.

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The Birdsmouth Table both functional and symbolic, incorporating a central tool of empire, the mast, into a beautiful jewellery-like element that punctuates the Chippendale inspired tabletop at each of the leg standing points. The table has eight legs, each with a brass castor, and six drawers lined with kangaroo skin. The Wenge and blockwood table top is intersected with primary coloured Marblo leg detailing that features on the table top, and spans 2270 mm. Goodrum has furniture in the collections of leading Italian design brands, among them Cappellini, Poltrona Frau and Bonacina, and has previously exhibited edition work at a design gallery in Paris.

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The Briggs Family Tea Service represents the marriage of George Briggs, a free settler to Tasmania, to Woretermoeteyenner of the Pairrebeenne people, and the four children they had together. The tea service brings together the materials common for water holding to each culture: porcelain in Britain and bull kelp in Tasmania, representing the beginnings of a hybrid culture. Combining slip cast porcelain, swathed in bull kelp and wallaby pelt, and decorated in copper and brass, the result of a collaboration with a porcelain artist. Jansen launched his career with a coveted internship with Marcel Wanders at MOOOI, and last year won a three month internship in Italy at EDRA, mentored by Massimo Morozzi.

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Applying the adaptive reuse capabilities that have made McRae’s work as a ‘body architect’ famous, to create a light, the work adds a protective skin to a floor light, transforming it into a new creature capable of intense labour and self-preservation – two qualities essential for women wanting to survive the harsh conditions common during the Australian colonial period. This is first object designed by McCrae, an installation artist currently based in Europe.

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Superbly crafted, Tall Boy unites a range of colonial period references into a traditional furniture piece, stylistically referencing works from the late seventeenth century. The seven drawer Tall Boy brings together a love for the makeshift agricultural structures of rural Australia, the slender lines of Biedermeier furniture and the simplicity of obelisks to create a unique object. Joins and legs  are made from handcrafted Blackwood and the cabinet is finished with French Polish.

Images (c) Scottie Cameron.