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

Future Inheritance by Marsha Golemac. Exhibition View, Melbourne Design Week 2021. Photo by Tomas Friml.

Jacqueline Stojanovic, Azubka Rug. This very personal work is made reflecting upon Stojanović’s own mixed heritage, the widely forgotten symbols of handwoven carpets in her family’s homeland, and the 1992 slogan of Mladen Stilinović’s, An Artist Who Cannot Speak English Is No Artist. So much of cultural understanding hinges on the practice of language, with the alphabet often the first symbols we are formally taught to recognise. While much can be lost between generations, Stojanović has created this tapestry using the same method as those in her family’s homeland – abstracted – depicting their Cyrillic alphabet as symbols to remember or forget.

One of Melbourne’s finest art directors, Marsha Golemac, has curated an exhibition for Melbourne Design Week 2021 that explores how seemingly insignificant objects can be enriched by storytelling, and enable connection across time and space.

Examining the power and significance of heirlooms, tokens and talisman, ‘Future Inheritance: 20 Speculative Objects for a Time to Come’ showcased the work of twenty multi-disciplinary artists and designers, invited to consider how and why value is instilled in items of matter, regardless of their monetary worth.

Responding to the 2021 design week theme, ‘Design the World You Want’, the exhibition invited observers to imagine a future where culture is valued through design, whilst highlighting the emotional, environmental and social impact of what is left behind.

Catherine Jones, Probart Sink. One of Catherine Jones’ strongest memories from her childhood is her father shaving at the same time every morning: the steam, the sound of the blade on his skin, and back and forth in the water, the smell of the cream. The artist wanted to make an object that was informed by a sense other than sight and gives permanence to an atmosphere: something durable, that slowly accumulates the marks of its use, a filter for a much-needed resource. A sink is something we use every day. There is hope it can act as a catalyst to trigger such memories for others.

Tamara Maynes, Chronicle. The culturally traditional British charm bracelet of the 1800’s is a token-rich chronicle of a person’s life. Imbued with cast precious metal portrayals of love, loss, hopes, achievement and occasion, it’s life-long unfolding forms an intimate representation of the owner. Here, 32 stylised, impractically large, hand-built charms belatedly capture life lived since the Maynes’ own 18-year-old charm bracelet was lost 32 years ago. Maynes hopes that the heir of this object may find a sense of community within family via perceived parallels to her story.

Conceptualised through the prism of themes such as community, emotion and history, Golemac invited each artist to produce an object to pass onto the next generation – where the value lies not only in materiality or craft, but perception, symbolism and sentimentality.

“Objects are commonly handed down from generation to generation; some ordinary or banal, some functional, others precious or irreplaceable,” says Marsha. “Irrespective of these properties, they all carry meaning for the possessor and a tangible connection to the past. Unfortunately, mass consumption has increased the prevalence of ‘stuff’ and in turn diminished the value we place on objects that surround us. This exhibition encourages a return to truly valuing the physical, not for the sake of materialism, but for making the intangible tangible.”

The diverse group of exhibitors includes Australian artist Jacqueline Stojanovic who presented a tapestry that celebrates forgotten symbols from her ancestral homeland, and Iranian born artist Fatemeh Boroujeni, who uses techniques learnt from traditional masters in Isfahan to explore the symbolic importance of the humble brush.

UK born Melbourne based creative practitioner Thomas Coward referenced Cornish ‘dry wall’ construction in a collection of impractical utensils, and Californian born fashion designer Courtney Holm presented a work that harnessed biological waste in a tribute to makers marks found in her family’s crafting tradition.

The theme of family continues in the work of jeweller Seb Brown. When Brown’s grandmother passed away and her jewellery was distributed amongst the family, as a male he was overlooked. Brown presented a totemic structure made of bronze and jewels gifted to him by his aunt.

For more information, visit @future.inheritance and @marshagolemac.

Related: Design the World You Want: Melbourne Design Week Announces its 2021 Event Program.

Seb Brown, Untitled. As a jeweller, Seb Brown is invested in making heirlooms and objects for people to wear and pass on. When his grandmother died, as a male, he wasn’t offered any of her jewellery as an inheritance. This led him to make his own small totemic structure from bronze and jewellery given to him by his aunt who collects old jewels from thrift stores.

Vittoria Di Stefano, The Birds. This work references a pair of ornaments that were passed on to the artist after her grandmother died. Carved from the deer horn of her native Poland, they depict a pair of birds in flight. These inherited artefacts took on a new resonance over lockdown as Di Stefano grappled with what felt like a dissolution of opposites: freedom and containment, intimacy and solitude, movement and stasis. During this time, the domestic space became the locus for all activity, as time morphed and crystalised. The work made for this exhibition reflects on these conditions and serves as a relic and votive offering to a confounding time.

Fatemeh Boroujeni, Demeter. This piece was started in 2019 when Australia was in the midst of apocalyptic bushfires, closely followed by the pandemic. As an artist, a migrant from Iran and a global citizen, this piece was created to reflect these fraught and troubled times. Demeter is a container, a cornucopia, but not a horn of plenty. Instead, it reflects diminished resources, a handful of seeds, and hope for generations to follow. Boroujeni uses materials and techniques she learnt from traditional masters in Isfahan. Repousse is an ancient technique in Persian metalwork. The use of brushes, whether as a symbol or tool, is an important part of the artist’s practice. Brushes have been used for thousands of years by humans, unleashing great art, yet remaining essentially unchanged.

[Images courtesy of Marsha Golemac. Exhibition photography by Tomas Friml. Artwork photography by Lillie Thompson.]