SWEET NATURE SYDNEY DESIGN 2016

Sweet Nature for Sydney Design 2016  brought together designers, artists and creative collaborators whose work is inspired to nurture nature through considered creative practice, exploring a multitude of materials and approaches. The Sweet Nature exhibition during Sydney Design September 2 to 11 was a program for participants to explore and share perspectives of our surrounding environment.

Artists include:

Lana Alsamir-Diamond
Glenn Barkley
Emilie Delalande
Jem Nockles
Liane Rossler
Fiona Scanlan
Andrew Simpson

LANA ALSAMIR-DIAMOND

A fascination with materials used for throwaway objects and creating objects from low value materials has always been of interest, adding value to a material by creating an unexpected precious piece. Hand made, local, considered practice that encourages us to consume less, consider our environment and replace the throwaway with possessions that we treasure.  I enjoy working with this material, the imperfections and possibilities it offers, the raw unfinished nature of it, the mixture of hard and soft, the almost translucent quality it gives to these objects, the intentional fragility that is only achieved by restraint. 

Lana Alsamir-Diamond is a Sydney based product designer whose work is constantly redefining how we use forms and materials and challenging perceived ideas. The result is a raw aesthetic that is thought provoking and products that possess an emotional value and a strong personal touch. 

www.lanaalsamirdiamond.com
@designwarrior

GLENN BARKLEY

This small work is about a song I really love Everything I Got Belongs to You by Ed Kuepper. It was included on the album Honeys Steel Gold released in 1991. It’s a great song about the realities of a life partnership.  If you google it there is a really great version online from 1999. Ed Kuepper should be better known and his song is one of the masterpieces of Australian music. I make a lot of works using lyrics as they are the poems of contemporary life and these lines are so direct and perfect.

Glenn Barkley is an artist, writer, curator and gardener based in Sydney and Berry NSW. His work operates in the space between these interests drawing upon ceramics deep history, to popular song, the garden and conversations about art and the internet. He is represented by Utopia Art Sydney, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne and Heiser Gallery Brisbane.  He is co-founder of Kilnit Experimental Ceramics Studio Glebe and Co-Director of The Curators Department an independent curatorial agency based in Sydney. 

www.utopiaartsydney.com.au
@glennbarkley

EMILLIE DELALANDE

“Empreintes” draws its inspiration from Antonio Gaudi’s series of handles at la Perdrera. The hand-formed impressions on the vessels give a primal attribute to a simple ceramic. It forces the user to hold it in a way that connects them both to nature, the clay, and the maker, the imprints. 

Emilie Delalande was born in France and grew up in the countryside of Paris. She studied set design and interior architecture in Paris before moving to Sydney in 2009. Emilie has a bachelor degree in design (interior design). In 2016, she founded Etic, an interior design studio. Emilie has a strong belief that the spaces we construct must identify and nurture their human inhabitants.

www.studioetic.com
@emdeli

JEM NOCKLES

I'm a Sydney based fine artist concerned to the point of obsession with the biological, the slippery boundary between the body and the self, the micro and the macro.

My under/growth series is a collection of fantastical microbes and deep sea creatures inspired by the work of Ernst Haeckel and the threatening magic of what can't be seen with the naked eye. 

www.jemnockles.com
@jeminycricketss

LIANE ROSSLER

Made from local Australian clay, and created in a direct process from earth to form expressing the natural qualities of the material, this work is designed as an interior landscape and mini eco-system to nurture nature and support plants, people, birds, bees and butterflies. A simple earthy contemplation and appreciation of the everyday gifts that nature delivers.

Liane is an artist, designer, curator and creative advisor on art, design and the environment. Her work is focused on clever and beautiful sustainable design practice, with an emphasis on community and creative cultural engagement. 

www.lianerossler.com.au
@lianerossler

FIONA SCANLAN

Toile of a Staghorn is a study into the wild beauty and unique form of this plant recreated in simple cotton fabric with the use of millinery techniques to explore the expressive form and clever layering of this plant. The loudness and the softness. The piece maintains a confident silence which suits the nature of this plant as it is such a quiet achiever – it is a plant that has evolved over time nestled into the canopy of the most beautiful of rainforests and needs little - except moisture and some nutrients that exist in the atmosphere of their natural environment.

Primarily in fashion as a designer, creative brain. Scanlan & Theodore womenswear - founder, creative director and designer1987 – 2002.  BIG by Fiona Scanlan – childrenswear – founder, creative director and designer 2004 – 2013. Since then – used for creative brain in installations, projects and collaborative events for QIC Le Louvre Melbourne, M Pavilion Melbourne, and residential developments. Extra fascination in plants and developing gardens, developing forms in ceramics.

fiona@bigbyfiona.com
@ffffmmmmssss

ANDREW SIMPSON

This press considers waste as a resource that we have not worked out what to do with. The Junk Press challenges the perception of junk mail being rubbish, and instead utilises trash as a raw material that is delivered daily for free. The press is sand cast in aluminium and has interchangeable moulds to make a range of bowls, plates, lunchboxes, light shades and cups. This group of bowls were made from Post-it notes that were found in the rubbish bins of an office block. The colour has been slowly bled out of the pulp by adding white waste paper at each new pressing. 

Andrew Simpson is the founder and director of Sydney-based design house Vert and has designed a huge range of products over its ten years of operation, from the intimately hand-crafted through to mass-produced industrial products. Andrew’s approach to design is open and honest, with the act of designing, prototyping and making core to his practice. Andrew graduated in Industrial Design from the University of Technology in Sydney in 2005 and his work has appeared in over 20 exhibitions in Australia, Europe, North America and Asia. Andrew teaches design at UNSW Art and Design and speaks regularly about design at events across the world. 

www.vertdesign.com.au
www.andrewsimpson.net
@andrewcsimpson