Maureen Faye Chauhan, Concurrence brooch, 2015, heat coloured mild steel, 80 x 80 x 15mm. Photo: Janak Chauhan.
CLOSED due to the COVID-19 Pandemic
Exhibitors:
Alison Jackson, Anthill construction, Barry Gardner, Brodie Neill, BVN, Christian Hall, CODA Studio, Collins Turner, Cox Architecture, Craig Hiron, Dan Lorrimer, DesignByThem, Geoffrey Nees, Gunybi Ganambarr, Kensuke Todo, Korban Flaubert, Lorraine Connelly-Northey, Mari Funaki, Matthew Harding, Maureen Faye Chauhan, Misho and Associates, Oliver Smith, Sabine Pagan, Sean O'Connell, Seaton McKeon, Simon Cottrell, Sue Lorrain, Tony Hobba and Trent Jansen
STEEL: art design architecture is a major exhibition exploring innovative ways that steel is being used by artists, designers and architects in Australia in the 21st century.
Curated by Margaret Hancock Davis STEEL art design architecture showcases outstanding projects by contemporary Australian artists, designers and architects. It represents a cross-section of current creative practices and relationships to this versatile material.
Korban Flaubert, Maquette for Involute, 2009, stainless steel, 500 x 550 x 550 mm. Photo: Stephanie Flaubert
Steel is a medium rich in human history. An alloy of iron and carbon, steel dates back to 4,000 years ago and traces the technical and cultural development of multiple civilisations. First forged in hand-made furnaces, steel production and its subsequent use, expanded in the 17th century with the technical innovations of blister and crucible steel. By the 19th century the Bessemer and Siemens-Martin processes heralded in the era of mass steel production.
Today steel is one of the most ubiquitous materials in the world. It inhabits the landscape of our bodies, our domestic spaces and our built environments. A material that ranges from raw and functional to lustrous and decorative – steel blurs the boundary between utilitarian and precious.
Alison Jackson, Wobble Pots, 2015, stainless steel. Photo Angela Bakker.
The art, design and architecture in this exhibition allows us to think upon the links and similarities between the creative processes, problem solving and design thinking undertaken in these various disciplines. It reveals that many of the concerns that drive these innovative uses of steel engage the themes of identity, locality, materiality and sustainability.
A material of such great potential, steel’s affordability and durability renders the ingenuity, craftsmanship and skill of those working with it practically invisible. STEEL: art design architecture unearths just some of these possibilities.
Curator, Margaret Hancock Davis
STEEL: art design architecture is a JamFactory touring exhibition and is supported by Visions of Australia, an Australian Government program supporting touring exhibitions by providing funding assistance for the development and touring of Australian cultural material across Australia.
