A Creative Dialogue: Versa by Tom Fereday & Charlie White at Melbourne Design Week.

Tom Fereday’s Cove lounge and table pictured alongside Charlie White’s modular Spear series. Photo by Pier Carthew.

Charlie White’s Spear is a modular system of interior objects from readily available waste. Photo by Pier Carthew.

Installation view across the rooms of North Melbourne’s Meat Market Stables. Photo by Pier Carthew.

Mano is a limited edition series of sculptural tables by Tom Fereday. Photo by Sevak Babakhani.

Process shot of foam by Charlie White. Photo courtesy of designer.

Sydney-based Tom Fereday and Melbourne-based Charlie White have presented Versa, a joint show at this year’s Melbourne Design Week. Meaning to be ‘turned’ or ‘changed’ in Latin, the collaborative series of installations were linked through each designer’s use of end-of-life materials. The exhibition showcases a collection of unique furniture and architectural elements, made by Tom and Charlie respectively, tailored to the three spaces of the Meat Market Stables in North Melbourne.

Developed through a process of independent collaboration, the pair sought to create a series of works that explore the turning of waste materials and the challenging of their perceived value. With a self-imposed constraint to make only one design gesture each per room, works have been conceived as the transformation of a material into an interior element—seat, table, light, ceiling, wall & floor—designed to express a sensory quality—dark, light, soft, warm, sharp and hard.

The complementary contrasts of the two designers’ works in each setting create singularly harmonious spaces—an ode to the power of collaboration. “We have quite different practices, but a similar sensibility to how we approach materials,” explains Charlie. “It is interesting to collaborate at this point in our careers together,” Tom adds, continuing: “First and foremost we are friends. We’d been discussing a project where we’re creating our own individual works but showing them together. We want to create a dialogue where there is a little bit of tension between our different aesthetics.”

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Opus Vincula: Mattresses Bound by Charlie White at Melbourne Design Week 2021.

Taking mattresses found curbside, these discarded objects became the source of polyurethane foam for making furniture...

In the first room, Charlie designed screens sourced from the bags of polyurethane foam offcuts from upholsterers and foam suppliers. Mounted onto hinged timber frames and covered in a black non-toxic waterproofing membrane paint, they stand like hinged totems of foam waste. These are paired with sculptural totem lights by Tom, experimentations with recycled porcelain, developed in collaboration with Mud Australia Founder and Creative Director, Shelley Simpson.

Room two is enveloped in a warm glow from a chandelier made of dissected mattress foam. Designed by Charlie, when light is shone through it, the luminance of the old foam at first glance appears like alabaster or marble. Below, Tom’s limited edition sculptural tables are composed of 70 percent recycled glass and 30 percent quartz sand. These modular forms have been developed in collaboration with Eco Outdoor.

The final room showcases Tom’s solid recycled cast aluminium chair, lounge and table, cast entirely from locally sourced recycled aluminium machine waste, complimented by soft recycled aniline leather. Experimenting with traditional sand casting, the series is based on the designer’s timber cove lounge developed for Nau Design. Charlie, in contrast, has developed a modular system of interior objects from readily available waste. Built from old couch cushions skewered together with steel threaded rod, the objects are coated in natural rubber latex.

Bow Chair by Tom Fereday for DesignByThem.

Named after its arching slender backrest, the Bow Chair accentuates the material and crafting of solid timber...

Charlie White’s 090423 Screens alongside Tom Fereday’s Layer series of sculptural totem lights. Photo by Pier Carthew.

The 090423 screen by Charlie White. Photo courtesy of the designer.

Mud Australia Founder, Shelley Simpson, with the Layer light. Photo by Fiona Susanto.

[Images courtesy of Tom Fereday and Charlie White. Photography by Pier Carthew, Sevak Babakhani & Fiona Susanto.]