A Curated Collective – The Tasmanian Salon by Design Tasmania

From the far corners of Tasmania comes together a curated collection of work by designer-makers who are dedicated to their craft and altogether quintessentially Tasmanian.

Design Tasmania’s unique creative gallery space speaks as a collective voice for the passionate designers, makers and artisans across the Design Island. The Tasmanian Salon closes the gap between our southern-most state and world at large in a time of COVID-19 by bringing the show to life online. Co-Curator and Executive Director Claire Beale says, “there’s something about the landscape here that connects designers and makers to nature in their practice, as you look around the salon you can see references to shark eggs, marsupial mice, lines of gum trees and even bushfires.” This connection to place sees fiercely modern design aesthetics express an experience of nature.

Design Tasmania’s unique creative gallery space speaks as a collective voice for the passionate designers, makers and artisans across the Design Island.

Working in wood is closely associated with Tasmanian design, but here we see a great variety of materials: from Anita Dineen’s cast stainless steel knives for Alessi to wool from Australia’s oldest woollen mill to Ridgeline’s use of clay direct from the adjacent Pipeclay Lagoon, just outside Hobart. Celebrated blacksmith Pete Mattila, whose commissioned works are peppered across Mona’s Hobart site, wields rigid steel and iron into delicate and bold pieces that go from outdoors to in. On show at The Tasmanian Salon is a mirror with a writhing frame that incorporates bird-life without being twee.

Wood does still stand tall as the hero material. Tasmania has a great selection of endemic species unique to the island including celery toppine, Huon pine and the ever-coveted Tasmanian oak. The latter has been torch-treated by Laura McCusker in her Sideboard and by Simon Ancher for his Clover Couch. Matt Prince’s Axis Side Table and Scottvan Tuil’s Loft Lounge both use cutting edge axis technology to transform Tasmanian oak into seamless geometric forms that challenge the materials at hand. Award winning lighting designers Duncan Meerding and Geoffrey Cameron Marshall create mod-looking pendant lights and table lamps, the former referencing propellers and petals and the latter preoccupied with Tasmania’s seascape.

The Tasmanian Salon closes the gap between our southern-most state and world at large in a time of COVID-19 by bringing the show to life online.

Each designer is interviewed about their practice and more in this online exhibition. “We went deep with this one; we wanted to talk about the whole culture of Tasmania so we’ve touched on food, wine and design,” says Tasmanian Salon Co-Curator Clementine Blackman.

These disparate designs come together in the Tasmanian Salon to tell a powerful story of place and identity. Todd Babiak, CEO of Brand Tasmania, says: “for Tasmanians, good enough is never good enough. We work harder, we follow our obsessions, we support one another, and we protect what makes this place different. Being Tasmanian is the quiet pursuit of the extraordinary.”

Tasmanian Salon @ Design Tasmania
Curated by Claire Beale and Clementine Blackman
via designtas.info/tasmaniansalon
Exhibition continues online throughout 2020