After Hours at Volker Haug Studio during Melbourne Design Week 2021.

Volker Haug Studio, Skyline Carpet.

Marsha Golemac, Uspomena.

Oliver du Puy, Arm-Chair.

Housed at Volker Haug Studio’s converted 1940s warehouse in East Brunswick, and held in conjunction with Melbourne Design Week 2021, After Hours was an exhibition of side projects by local creatives—the work they do when they’re not at work.

Following a year many spent at home blurring the lines between on and off the clock, After Hours brought to the forefront artistic pursuits that are often pushed to the wayside by the daily business.

The exhibition featured the works of local designers Anna Varendorff, Michael White, Johan Hermijanto, Oliver du Puy, Brahman Perera, Ritz & Ghougassian, Wes Waddell, Marsha Golemac as well as team Volker Haug, capturing the approachable and personable spirit of interdisciplinary design in Melbourne.

Wes Waddell.

Anna Varendorff, Superior Aging Workforce.

Anna Varendorff, Superior Aging Workforce.

Jeweller Anna Varendorff of ACV studio presented a series of works dubbed Superior Aging Workforce. Conceived under the premise that all around are things that are still fantastic objects, but no longer serving their original purpose, Varendorff chose to work with discarded lights and bike parts turning them into beautiful lamps and sculptural seating.

Working in the great traditions of Giacometti, Jean Michele Frank & Serge Roche, interior designer Brahman Perera explored bespoke lighting creations using a variety of hand-crafting techniques. Each piece is built using an armature of steel, adding wire & applying layers of plaster to explore texture, diaphanous light, shadow play and botanic sculptural elements.

Architects Michael White of Freadman White and Johan Hermijanto of Bates Smart created Babel – a site-specific installation borne out of open dialogue, shared interests and fluid moonlit conversations. An ephemeral form that elicits curiosity through its delicately woven structure and seemingly unfathomable scale, it acts as a mysterious and meditative monument that transcends language while reaching for the heavens.

Art director Marsha Golemac’s Uspomena (translating to Memory), explores the concept of religion and culture in relation to ancestry, through an art piece made from inherited and found artefacts. Children are often given a fictional synopsis of life, yet are encouraged to practice honesty. “It’s not until young adulthood that we are able to begin forming our own independent thoughts,” says Marsha. “Uspomena reflects on this transition and the desire to let go, and grow out of, learnt ideologies.”

Architect Oliver du Puy’s Arm-chair explores the moment when we want leisure time but feel we can’t totally relax. “Through the experience of Arm-chair, a tension is created between work and leisure; rest and movement; balance and folly. One arm is resting, the other always ready to go. Sit back and relax, but not too much,” says du Puy.

Interior designers Gilad Ritz and Jean-Paul Ghougassian of Ritz & Ghougassian presented a series of works defined by the process mark making. “Bands of pencil run directionally across the page. Creating a current of movement from one end to the other. This process is semi-autonomous, an instinctive mark is created with a defined path, then copies of these lines are drawn instinctively there-after. The marks vary in length, angle and thickness all depending on the maker and marker,” explain the designers.

Decorative lighting practice Volker Haug Studio swapped hard materials for soft to explore luxury underfoot, with Skyline carpet featuring as their ‘sideline project’. Taking the imprint of built forms against the flat backdrop of the sky at dusk, the carpet traces the architectural forms of buildings against the Melbourne cityscape.

Graphic Designer at Studio HiHo, Wes Waddell, is a multidisciplinary artist with a focus on abstraction. His painterly gestures draw upon various narratives and are often influenced by a moment in time, a memory, or a state of emotion. Waddell has held solo shows, and exhibited with artist-run-initiatives and in various group exhibitions. His abstract art, though nascent, displays the rich child-like workings and the more adult re-workings of an artist on the rise.

Related: “Future Inheritance” Curated by Marsha Golemac at Melbourne Design Week 2021.

Brahman Perera.

Freadman White & Johan Hermijanto, Babel.

<Ritz & Ghougassian.

[Images courtesy of Volker Haug. Exhibition photography by Tom Ross. Rug images by Haydn Cattach.]