Design Now

Design now is an annual exhibition running at Melbourne Museum. It showcases work from a range of graduate students from universities all over Australia. The exhibition shows design for studio practice, the body, the built environment, communication, the home and for industry. Students work was in a range of mediums from fashion and textiles to furniture and sculpture. Majority of the work was in abstract form.

Renata Carmichael from the University of Tasmania created the two furniture pieces; Pseudofelis Majestica (2008) and Canis Domesticus (2008) from the series ‘Animals in Furniture’. In these pieces, Carmichael was exploring and questioning the relationship between humans and animals. As you can tell from the furniture, she loves animals and is trying to bring them closer to the human domestic world. I think that from just looking further into the names you can see what she is trying to portray. The footstool is called Canis Domesticus, clearly saying it is meant to be a dog (canine) and she is trying to make it even more domesticated, more human. With the chaise lounge, the word majestica incorporated into the name clearly shows she wants it to be elegant like she said in her blurb.

I also liked the work ‘Your Threads Are Showing’ by Hannah Wight from the University of South Australia. When I saw this I found it to be really intriguing yet I found it difficult to understand until I read the blurb. I like how she is trying to challenge tradition and the so called ‘perfect design’. I think she shows it can still be beautiful while showing her individuality and taking the traditional practice further.

Some works I didn’t understand, like the fashion work by Harmony Lam. I found this to be very abstract and confusing. It didn’t really appeal to me at all, the weird shapes of the clothes and figures.

I liked the way the exhibition showed a range of abstract to more traditional art forms like with the ancient artefacts by Karla Way. It showed how everyone is inspired by different things, and we all have different creative ways of expressing our ideas.