Furnish

Visitors to Furnish, a stunning new design exhibition at The Dowse, may be tempted to take home many of the items on display. Twelve enticing designs by ten top New Zealand furniture designers include Jamie McLellan’s elegant Odin Dining Chair, Roger Kelly’s racy Speed Chair and Tim Wigmore’s playful eco-stool Rockaround.

Like the sustainable fashion exhibition Yield, also taking place at The Dowse this Autumn, Furnish celebrates innovation, craftsmanship and cutting edge technology and demonstrates that New Zealand designers truly are part of a global market.

Wellington’s Tim Wigmore exhibited at Salone Satellite, Milan Furniture Fair 2010 and is about to head back for the 2011 fair. His stylish and eco-aware seat, Rockaround, is made from bamboo and hemp - www.timwigmore.com. Jamie McLellan’s Odin Dining Chair was created for the luxury living spaces of Odin Residences in Niseko, Japan. Jamie splits his time between Auckland and New York and was recently awarded the Home New Zealand Designer of the Year title for the second time - www.jamiemclellan.com.

Auckland designer Nathan Goldsworthy’s Steel Table is reminiscent of stringed musical instruments but is based on the simple structure of a triangle. To create it, he spent hours with a machine normally used for making building foundations - www.consciousdesign.co.nz. Katy Wallace moved from Auckland to Gisborne where she shares a studio with her artist partner. Her Balance Bookshelf works to maximise the aesthetic and engineering qualities of plywood and converts from a flat packed board into a self-bracing, leaning bookshelf. Emma Fox Derwin and Nigel Groom formed Well-Groomed-Fox in 2008. Their XY+Z Suit/Clothing Rack is a reinterpretation of the traditional men’s valet clothing stand, the name referring to the Male XY chromosome and the 3D form ‘Z’ by CNC manufacturing. It was launched at imm Cologne 2010, as a finalist in the D3 'Design Talents' Contest - www.well-groomed-fox.com.

Auckland designer Kennedy Brown’s work featured as part of The New Zealand Room in the Venice Biennale 2009. His two seater bench, Maverick, was inspired by the structural engineering and building industry yet hints at our Pacific past. Napier designer Kevin Webby’s Pacific Ray Bench was a personal project, designed for a friend’s wedding. The original remains in the garden where it was first used - www.kevinwebby.com. Wellington designer John Calvert cites confectionery as the inspiration for his work, The Pasco Table, references a liquorice allsort - www.johncalvert.co.nz. Another Wellington designer, Duncan Sargent has exhibited widely in New Zealand, including in 2010 at Shapeshifter and in Ply-ability at Hawkes Bay Museum and Art Gallery - www.duncansargent.com. Napier’s Roger Kelly designed Speed Chair as a play on the angular tailfins of classic 1950s cars - www.redorange.co.nz