Lee Broom’s Landmark Exhibition ‘Park Life’ for Space Australia in Sydney.

London-based designer Lee Broom has collaborated with Space Furniture, transforming the underground car park of their flagship Sydney showroom into a landmark exhibition. ‘Park Life’ is Broom’s international launch for 2019, replacing his usual anticipated appearance at Milan Design Week. He didn’t hold back for Sydney; at 400sqm, Park Life is the largest installation Broom has created to date.

“Australia has been a big supporter of my work for many years and it is an honour to create such a significant installation to showcase my collection in Sydney,” says Broom.

Park Life appeals to our engagement with the incongruous, with Broom’s contemporary interpretation of an 18th-century pleasure garden inserted into an industrial car park. Traditional garden parks were places to see and be seen, replete with the latest art, architecture, and music. Broom recreated this sense of escapism and drama, leading guests through a maze formation replete with tableaus and vignettes showcasing the brand’s lighting and furnishings.

As well as notable favourite’s from past collections, Park Life debuted a new version of Broom’s award-winning Eclipse light in a polished gold finish, a softer, warm interpretation of the original polished chrome. The sculptural silhouette has mirror-polished acrylic and polished gold discs that interact and intersect, with a mobile-like quality that changes at every angle.

Broom’s maze was contained within an illuminated transparent box, reflecting into polished black acrylic to give the illusion of a structure floating on water. White gravel pathways led guests through the maze, and a white stretched fabric ceiling further detached from the car park reality above.

White statues, plinths, and urns throughout enhance the pleasure garden aesthetic, and a soundtrack of classical music that crescendos as guests moved through the maze, added to the playful drama. A chessboard of giant spherical lights, half gold and half black, is at the centre of the maze. The car park didn’t have the best ventilation, and on opening night, white paper fans fit for an English garden party provided some respite.

Park Life was open to the public from March 14 – 18 within the Space Furniture car park. In addition to the Sydney installation, Broom held a design tour with Space Furniture throughout March, presenting a series of Design Talks in Singapore, Brisbane, and Melbourne to coincide with Singapore and Melbourne Design Weeks.

See more from Lee Broom on Yellowtrace here.

[Images courtesy of Space Furniture. Photography by Craig Wall.]