Speculative Materialism: Making for the Future engages with the complexities of being a material maker in a world where mass consumption and contemporary materiality plagues the health of the planet.
Artists in the exhibition explore the regenerative potential of a range of materials, exploring creative solutions for environmental problems, deploying design thinking to reframe and propose solutions to problems, and utilising innovative use of transformational materials. Works in the exhibition engage with physical, imaginative, terrestrial and aquatic environments.
Curated by Waratah Lahy and Jodie Cunningham, Craft + Design Canberra, with contributions from Christian Sirois.
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Alexi Freeman is a Naarm/Melbourne-based interdisciplinary practitioner known for an innovative approach to wearable art, speculative materials and discursive design. Combining artisanal craftsmanship with sustainability research Freeman's artefacts are characterised by heavily embellished materials, sculptural silhouettes and explorations of biomaterials.
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A practicing artist for over 20 years, Minka lives and works on the Central Coast, NSW. She makes sculpture, installation, painting, drawing and public art.
Minka has had over 12 solo exhibitions and has been in numerous group shows around Australia. Her work is held in the Artbank collection and in the QT Hotel in Auckland. She was a highly commended in the Gosford Art Prize and commended in the Blacktown Art Prize.
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Nicole Jakins is a multidisciplinary artist living and working on her bush property in Glenwood, Queensland. She explores environmental concerns, drawing on the beauty and fragility of nature. Jakins’ artworks draw from decades of living, working and walking through bushland and national parks, and through observing these changing landscapes.
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Living Seawalls aims to revolutionise the way we think about building in the ocean. In order to improve the ecological sustainability of new and existing foreshore developments we must ensure that no new development proceeds without first considering how it can benefit both humans and nature. By combining ecological and engineering knowledge, Living Seawalls is committed to developing adaptable and affordable mechanisms to bring life back into marine developments across the world.
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Halie Rubenis has studied art, design, object and jewellery at Melbourne Polytechnic, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and the Australian National University. Aside from having projects featured in many curated national exhibitions, Halie has also worked across the commercial and non-profit art and design sectors in business, strategic management and creative direction.
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Niklavs Rubenis is a designer and maker interested in the intersection of craft, design, ethics, waste, and people with a specific focus on repair (objects, systems, communities).
Niklavs is a Senior Lecture in Object Design at the School of Creative Arts and Media, University of Tasmania, and is coordinator of design; coordinator of object + furniture; and co-convenor of the Conceptualising and Communicating Change research hub.
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An early career artist, Narelle embraces ceramic labour as a field of enquiry and engages her materials as wilful co-conspirators. Invoking a playful and alluring blend of biomorphic and geologic references, her works gesture towards the co-constitutive nature of people, mythos and place. Inspired by a lineage of women artists with distinctive material signatures, Narelle is alive to the feminist and ecological implications of rethinking our relationships with matter.
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Molly Desmond is excessive, eclectic, and emerging. Engaging in modes of hybrid practice, Molly’s experimental ceramics practice is driven by process and material investigations with an emphasis on surface and speculative sculptural forms. Living and working on the unceded lands of the Ngambri and Ngunnawal Peoples, Molly is a graduate from the Australian National University School of Art and Design, having completed a Bachelor of Visual Art (Honours) in 2023.
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Daniel Leone is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Canberra ACT, Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country. Daniel is inspired by the local ecology where grasslands and eucalypt forests dominate. Through ceramics, sculpture, bonsai and woodworking, Daniel seeks to capture and create awareness of the surrounding country. Daniel sees his practice as a collaboration with nature, often incorporating found and salvaged objects into his work.
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Julie Pennington's career in the visual arts began in the field of textile design, before pursuing her interest in ceramics. Julie has exhibited nationally and has been a finalist in a number of major ceramic competitions. Recent awards include Winner of Significant 3D Award Stanthorpe, and Scott Brickworks Prize at North Qld Ceramic Award 2018. Julie has undertaken residencies in Australia and Spain. In 2023 Julie had her first solo show with Jennings Kerr Gallery NSW, and her work was presented by the gallery at Sydney Contemporary Art Fair that same year. Julie is represented by Gallery Jennings Kerr.
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Beth O’Sullivan is a transdisciplinary designer based in Canberra (Ngunnawal and Ngambri country) and Sydney (Gadigal Country), Australia. She works at the intersection of design, ecology and emerging technologies. With a background in ecology and environmental science, her work focuses on critically analysing the relationships and connections between human and non-human species, with a focus on novel, environmentally conscious materials.
Festival Opening Hours | 1 – 10 November | Daily 10am – 6pm
Post Festival Opening Hours | 13 November – 14 December | Wednesday to Saturday 12pm – 4pm
Entry to the exhibition is free | No bookings required
Image Credit: L-R Beth O'Sullivan, Julie Pennington, Daniel Leone, Molly Desmond | Works installed for coral growth at the National Zoo and Aquarium, 2024 | Photograph by Tim Bean