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E X H I B I T I O N

BY RAY EDGAR

Broached East explores the Asian influence on Australia. (Above and right)Armillary Whisky Bar, by Naihan Li; (top right) Chinaman’s File RockingChair, by Trent Jansen; Paludarium Shigelu, by Azuma Makoto.

Evolving in an easterly direction

‘‘It representspeople whothrive in harshconditions.’’

When design impresario Lou Weissaw Azuma Makoto arrange thicksteaks of prized wagyu beef into anikebana-style sculpture, he knewhe had his man. Marrying meatand flowers, the Japanese rockmusician-turned-floral artistclearly understood the fetishobject.

The punk florist would be ideal totranslate the 19th-century fetishisa-tion of Asia and particularly flowers– the decorative motif common tothe period’s arts and crafts andaesthetic movements – for Weis’latest project, Broached East.

Over the past four years, Weis’Broached Commissions and its coreteam of Australian designers – TrentJansen, Adam Goodrum andCharles Wilson – has immerseditself in Australian history to reflecthow white settlement has beeninfluenced by our relationship withthe original inhabitants, the landand its flora and fauna, and thesubsequent migration of othercultures.

But these aren’t slavish copies byany means.

For Weis, Broached is an exercisein design history that explores howideas arrived and evolved in Austra-lia. ‘‘It’s about deepening the nar-rative of place,’’ he says. ‘‘WithBroached Colonial, it was the repre-sentation of the ‘make-do’ cultureof Australia. With Broached East,there’s the desire to belong to a partof the world we don’t actually geo-graphically inhabit. We’re takingEuropean trends to reflect upon thebeauty of Asia, rather than justengaging with it.’’

Employing contemporarydesigners from those key countriesis part of the Broached ambition.For Broached Colonial, Englishdesigner Max Lamb was selected;for Broached East, Makoto andChinese designer Naihan Li providethe contemporary Asian perspect-ive. The Asian influence is particu-larly resonant in Australia’s past dueto the massive migration of Asianprospectors during the gold rush.

Parallel to the decorative aspectwas the physical trade in exotic spe-cimens. The Wardian case wasinvented to transport plants aroundthe globe. Makoto’s obsession withplants made him the perfect inter-preter for a 21st-century version. Afetish object in itself, Makoto’s alu-minium hothouse recalls Damien

Hirst or Marc Quinn’s vitrines.Instead of preserved animals,Makoto preserves bonsai plants.

Broached Commission uncoversa narrative for each designer andthe objects they make. ‘‘Stories are away for me to orient myself aroundwhat is particular about livinghere,’’ Weis says.

Weis has mapped out aboutseven ‘‘heavily encrusted popular

periods’’ that Broached will tackle.Alongside the colonial and goldrush periods, the Great Depressionis an obvious choice. Keen not to leta chronological approach stiflethem, the Vietnam War is next.

‘‘But it’s also about uncoveringstories you think you know,’’ Weissays. ‘‘It’s about dispelling precon-ceptions. People go, ‘Oh, I knowwhat that is’. Really, do you? They’renot sufficiently reconsidered.’’

So while the poor, lonely, perse-cuted Chinese prospector isconsidered in Jansen’s Chinaman’sFile rocking chair, it’s countered byLi’s whisky bar.

‘‘Whites were convinced theChinese were working all the time,’’Li says from her studio in Beijing.‘‘They actually had fun in their ownway. They even brought operateams with them to the goldfields.’’

The story Li’s object tells isbased on a successful Chineseentrepreneur who travelled theworld and partook of the good life.Her whisky bar conflates travel,exoticism, storytelling. The patternof the brass armillary spheres isbased on another flower motif, theplum blossom.

‘‘It’s one of the four flowers theChinese scholars appreciate,’’ Lisays. ‘‘The plum blossom thrives inwinter at the most strange locationand time. It’s also associated withpride. It represents people whothrive in harsh conditions – a char-acter who travelled all the way toAustralia and managed to besuccessful.’’

Where the 19th century saw theemergence of fetish objects such asthe Japanese vase for a newly emer-gent middle class, Weis and his

team are creating them for upper-middle-class collectors. Rangingbetween $5500 and $45,000, onlythey can afford them.

Just as Weis was aware of thedarker implications of white settle-ment with the colonial series, he isacutely aware that creating anotherfetish object is not necessary in anypractical sense.

After spending the past fouryears creating about 30 high-pricedpieces of furniture, this may seemsurprising.

‘‘We don’t need any of theseobjects,’’ he admits. ‘‘It’s very muchin the realm of desire, as is mostcreative practice.’’

Nevertheless, the commissions

have captured the imaginations ofcollectors and brought furthercommissions.

In Canberra, the MolongloGroup asked Weis to provide aseries for its Hotel Hotel, whichlaunches in May. Inspired by WalterBurley Griffin’s utopian vision forCanberra, Weis’ team has created apatterned table reflecting Griffin’sidea to represent Gondwanaland bysurrounding Canberra with variousplants from around the world.Meanwhile, a bench emulates Grif-fin’s faceted masonry.

The difference between thecommissions and Griffin’s utopianvision, Weis says, is that where Grif-fin dreamed of a clean city, they’reinterested in its opposite.

‘‘Ultimately, the best parts of acity are the messy parts,’’ he says.‘‘We isolate these little bits of his-tory because the messy parts haveall been cleaned away – and they’rethe fun parts.’’

■ Broached East is at Level 7, 388 BourkeStreet, city, until April 20. Tuesday-Saturday,11am-6pm. broachedcommissions.com

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