19 Greek Street, established by Designer and Creative Director Marc Peridis, sources some of the most beautiful objects from around the world, transforming the sharp white interiors of a 6-floor Victorian townhouse into a showcase for craft, quality, and excellence in design. Sharing the impressive collection with the public and most discerning design enthusiasts, this “tribe” of designers, curators, stylists, and gallerists get it right. The eclectic and contrasting pieces in “Wonderland: a design fairytale” merge storytelling and social responsibility: the selected works are innovative, well researched, and resourceful.
Located on the first floor is Richard Hutten’s limited edition “Layers Table”, a coffee table entirely constructed from stacked repurposed books and resin. An imaginative and practical solution for unwanted books, it is part of a larger series where each table tells a different story. Opposite this is the beautifully composed Analogia project. Designer Andrea Mancusco and architect Emilia Serra digitally designed the installation whereby a framework of black wool sketches out an imaginary interior for the viewer to explore. It is a meticulous replication of sketching, but in the air, and traces a fine line between abstract thought and concrete reality.
Red-filtered Victorian windows create a pink tinged light throughout the room. Between the windows suspends Finnish Iina Vuorivirta’s “Mass Produced Individualism” produced both by machine and by hand. The collection of white ceramics emphasise the quality in human error, and how these two ways of making can successfully collaborate.
Rasmus Baekkel Fex has designed the contemporary table “8.5°” and chair “9.5°”. They exemplify B Fex’s interest in letting go of function and mass production, blurring boundaries between art and design. The chair is tilted at 9.5 degrees. By tilting the chair and then elevating one end of the seat back to a straight angle, a triangle is created. This actually makes the construction stronger and reduces the need for a stabilising cross rod. Both pieces are created in the same mindset. When the table is tilted at exactly 8.5 degrees, the transverse pin meets the tabletop, which makes a very strong construction. Adjacent to B’Fex’s mathematical furniture is “Woodcastings”, three elegant consoles by Hilla Shamia, fabricated from cast aluminium and wood.
The second floor of Wonderland continues the showcase for innovative and experimental design. Handmade Industrials have created “Dome Light” and “Cotton Candy”; domestic furniture where standardization of material is ignored. Here, the viewer can see the natural behaviour of the raw materials. The process enables the materials to clash and let the Cotton Candy definition emerge. Similarly in “Well Proven Chair” designers Marjan Van Aubel and James Shaw encourage a chemical reaction to occur between a bio-resin and timber waste shavings. Various coloured dyes and different sized shavings creates colourful, lightweight, mouldable materials. “Liquefied Forms” also explores boundaries of materials in design. Christina Schou Christensen investigates the form-giving qualities of ceramic glaze. A key element of her creative process is the firing phase and the interaction of numerous variables like the temperature of the kiln, the porosity of the ceramic, the firing tools and the melting point of the glaze. The visual result is thick running liquid pools that support her objects.
“Thread Wrapping Stool” by Anton Alverez and Nina Tolstrup’s office chairs, glamorise everyday stools and chairs respectively, with vibrant colours, textures, and expressive shapes. Danish designer Tolstrup’s Re-Imagined series of chairs have become the gallery’s first house collection. An assembly of further curious chairs clutter the top floor of the exhibition; each admirable in its own right. The Café Chair by Blakebrough + King, is entirely made from jute coffee bags, sourced from local (Australian) coffee roasters. It’s inspired by Italian furniture company Olivetti’s office furniture of the 1960s.
Noam Dover and Yoav Reche‘s sophisticated “Saj Tables” are on display in the basement. They are hand crafted steel tables in varied compositions, constructed from spun steel domes called “Saj”, usually used for making thin pita bread. “Steel shelf”, also by these two Middle Eastern designers, stretches and curves along one of the walls. It is an innovative design made from four thin sheets of spring steel, fixed to the wall using various clamps and wooden wedges.
For more information on upcoming exhibitions and events at 19 Greek Street, check out the website http://www.19greekstreet.com.
Words: Ingrid Reynolds
