These days you’re not normal unless you’re having an identity crisis. Mine was coming to a head at Linden New Art on Saturday when the 2024 Design Fringe show opened.
The winning piece of furniture was a pair of freeform stools/rocking horses that you probably couldn’t sit on. The lighting award went to a subtle little modular lamp made out of ceramic with a shy beam.
Capitalist society is predicated on the play between cynicism and imagination and it was this theme that stole the show.
Crisis of Imagination by Ellen McCarthy cleverly put this into words with a reversible poster made out of 3D laser-printed paper and foam board.
Viewed from the left it said in black, We are what we imagine ourselves to be: doomed. Viewed from the right it said in white: We can’t do what we can’t imagine.
I found this very profound. There was a St Kilda local standing behind me and he nodded when I pointed out the piece.
First off, McCarthy is obviously quite a wordsmith, plus she’s a good thinker. Her didactic board was equally profound, written as it was in third person.
“The artist wonders if this cynicism is central to our inability to act on climate change and social justice issues,” the board said. “Design creates environments that facilitate meaningful conversations. If we imagine ourselves to be doomed then we are.”
“But if we imagine a future that pulls apart an addiction to individualism and toward collective justice?” What then?”
This is a distorted poster that both presents and obscures information. It’s hard to grasp the message at first, but once seen, it becomes clear. Such is the beauty of an object when viewed from two directions.
The future is in our hands. We just need to come together to figure it out. That means getting off our bums and going down to St Kilda where it’s all happening.
When I tried to ingratiate myself with the St Kilda Elder he fobbed me off. I don’t blame him. He’d been there and done that. There is nothing like running your ideas past another art-lover but, alas, the St Kilda local had nothing more to add.
The theme of this year’s exhibition is We have shared bread and salt – a reference to Ancient Greek for getting together at the dining table. The rest of us are just catching up with the irony of it all.
The exhibition brings together 53 designers. The names of the prize-winners have been announced and are available on the Linden New Art website.
Design Fringe is not the last word on fairness nor capitalism but a light-hearted take on the imaginative use of materials to create objects that would be hard to use.
The best experimental design went to a padded ball of upholstery for the floor with holes for interaction called The Comforter (by Evie Rosa).
The official theme was the dinner table and bringing people together to discuss issues but sometimes you just have to make up your own mind.
We have shared bread and salt (Design Fringe 2024)
Linden New Art, 26 Acland Street, St Kilda
Exhibition continues to 24 November 2024
Free entry
For more information, visit: www.lindenarts.org for details.
Image: Ellen McCarthy, Crisis of Imagination, Lazerprint Paper & Foamboard, 84 x 60 x 4cm – photo by Rhonda Dredge
Words: Rhonda Dredge