LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
To be genuinely creative is to respect diversity across disciplines and domains. It also requires a curious outlook to forge new ideas, bold concepts and ethical expressions.
Liane Rossler embodies these qualities plus much more. As a co-founder of Dinosaur Designs in 1985 and a designer and director for 25 years, she was a part of creating a unique and respected design company that developed stand-alone stores in Sydney, Melbourne and New York, and had works sold through stores worldwide. Liane has since had her work exhibited in more than thirty exhibitions over the past decade, as well as many other exhibitions locally and internationally previous to that.
She contributes to and has helped establish a number of cultural committees and organisations, including AGNSW CCB, Museum of Contemporary Art START, UNSW Art & Design, Makerspace & Company, Artmonth, Sydney Living Museums and The Climate Project with Al Gore.
In particular, her approach and commitment to sustainable design and craft is both infectious and refreshing, without suffering the usual clichés that can taint sustainable products and materials. Some of the themes addressed through Rossler’s work include: regeneration, materials innovation, use of bamboo, ocean conservation, warming and acidification, bee protection and the appreciation of ‘urban plants’.
Rossler has been a mentor to a wide range of people working in design and creative industries, and she continues to bring her broad and detailed knowledge and experience to nurturing and building a variety of creative practitioners and ventures. She is generous with her time fostering practitioners and relationships across art, architecture, innovation, environment and equality.
The Sweet Nature (2016) exhibition is a clear expression of Rossler’s thinking and creativity through ceramic works creating ecosystems to nurture bees and highlighting their endangered status. Made from local Australian clay, and created in a direct process from earth to form expressing the natural qualities of the material, the pieces in the exhibition are designed as interior landscapes and mini eco-systems to nurture nature and support plants, people, birds, bees and butterflies.
Alongside her solo creative practice, Rossler is founder of Superlocalstudio which inspires collaborative, socially engaged cultural and creative projects for diverse audiences. Other recent work includes Here and Now, Supercyclers and Happy Talk; projects focused on clever and beautiful sustainable design practice.
In particular, Superlocalstudio supports and encourages an enterprise culture in the areas of art, design, environment, and cultural practices that enable and deliver projects which create enduring value. A broad reaching legacy is integral to Superlocastudio and how Rossler contributes together with others.
To account for Rossler’s extensive resume of creative endeavours in this short article fails to acknowledge the breadth of her work and her most generous collaborative spirit. She is generous with her time and knowledge, enthusiastic, intelligent and a true lateral thinker. She has extensive experience across most creative disciplines and has herself created meaningful and beautiful objects.
Rossler’s increasing focus on protecting the planet through creative activism and the benefit of successful incubations at Superlocalstudio, is a significant contribution towards ensuring that a sustainable future is effectively shaped by artists and designers.
There can be no doubt that Rossler’s lifetime achievements across art, design and environmental advocacy have delivered joy, empowered others and grown the body of Australia work that generously builds social and cultural capital.
For more information visit superlocalstudio
