Urban Biome is a site-specific modular art installation demonstrating ways in which regenerative design, reuse of materials and endemic plants can be incorporated into public space. Urban Biome is a collaborative work created by Thor Diesendorf from Thor’s Hammer, glass artist Spike Deane from the Canberra Glassworks, and horticulturalist David Taylor from Ephemeral Country. Supported by City Renewal Authority and Yarralumla Nursery.
Open 24 hours | Entry to this exhibition is free | No bookings required
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Thor Diesendorf began making furniture from recycled timber in the early 1990’s working for Paul Lynzaat, a resourceful carpenter & joiner based in Canberra. Inspired by the beauty of the Australian hardwoods they were salvaging, Thor began to save more timber and develop new products in collaboration with local builders, leading to the creation of Thor’s Hammer in 1994.
Thor’s Hammer designs and makes furniture, joinery and architectural products from recycled timbers recovered from demolition sites around Australia. These valuable materials are renewed and reused for projects from domestic to commercial, and have been purchased by national institutions like Parliament House, Commonwealth Place, the Australian National Botanic Gardens and Old Parliament House grounds.
Minimising environmental impact is key in Thor’s work. This includes practicality and simplicity in design, and making a high quality, durable product. The ethic extends into the production process and includes the use of plant-based resins and oils for filling and finishing the timber, turning waste sawdust into clean burning fire briquettes, and investment in electric forklifts and a big solar PV array.
Thor loves to work out design solutions which make best use (and sometimes push the boundaries) of the natural qualities of timber. He has designed many of the furniture pieces on display in the Thor's Hammer gallery and showroom and has regularly exhibited as part of Design Canberra. The Polyedrica chair Thor produced for architect Enrico Taglietti was collected by the National Gallery of Australia.
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David Taylor specialises in working with Australian plants and landscape and has worked in horticulture and botany since the 1980s including as the Curator of the Living Collections at the Australian National Botanic Gardens.
He now runs Ephemeral Country doing landscape design and planning that explores collaborative opportunities using a diverse range of ways to connect to country and Australia’s biodiversity.
He has produced many landscape designs for existing and new garden projects at the Australian National Botanic Gardens and Booderee Botanic Gardens at Jervis Bay, as well as many varied designs for rural and urban clients. He has initiated, developed and set up many collaborative conservation partnerships and projects bringing together a diverse range of people to help deliver a better outcome for biodiversity, always with a focus to collectively engage people with the special and unique land of which we are the custodians.
David loves collecting and refreshing old things, things that have ‘been there and done that’ no better example than the mudbrick house he and his partner Amber built using reclaimed 19th century colonial building materials and old bridge timbers.
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Spike Deane is Canberra-based visual artist who works mostly in cast glass, but admits to getting sidetracked by and enamoured with other mediums. Print, textiles, animation and exploring other materials alongside glass is what makes her tick.
Spike’s artistic practice is focused on the underlying narratives found in folk and fairy tales to consider questions of becoming, transformation and 'the hopeful journey'. She works in her home studio and at the Canberra Glassworks and exhibits throughout Australia.
The artist was born in Germany to British parents with the family returning to England before immigrating to Australia. The woodlands and forests of Europe and Australia are infused in Spike’s artwork with memories of childhood forest walks and helping her parents build a house on the edge of Olney State Forest, west of Lake Macquarie strong influences.
Spike graduated with Honours from Sydney College of the Arts (Glass) in 2012 and was a finalist in both ‘Hatched’ the National Graduate Art Prize and the National Student Art Glass Prize with pieces combining animation and glass.
Join us for an artists talk with the makers Thor, David and Spike inside the Urban Biome on 8 November | Friday 5.30pm | Entry to the talk is free | Bookings Essential
Proudly supported by:
Image Credit: Spike Deane, Dave Taylor and Thor Diesendorf at the Canberra Glassworks, 2024 | 5 Foot Photography