Steel: art design architecture

STEEL: art design architecture showcases innovative works by 29 contemporary artists, designers and architects, providing an extensive cross-section of current creative practices, modes of thinking and relationships to this essential material.

Steel is a medium rich in human history. An alloy of iron and carbon, steel dates back 4000 years and traces the technical and cultural development of multiple civilisations. First forged in hand-made furnaces steel production and its subsequent use expanded in the 17th century with technical innovations.

By the 19th century the era of mass produced steel had begun. Today steel is one of the most ubiquitous and pervasive materials in the world. It inhabits the landscape of our bodies, our domestic spaces and our built environments.

A polysemic material that ranges from raw and functional to lustrous and decorative, steel blurs the boundary between utilitarian and precious. Its affordability and durability has made it instrumental in the development of the Australian design vernacular. In the hands of skilled Australian designers and makers steel has become an essential material that helps to articulate a national character and contributes to our distinctive material culture.

Steel has also been an important medium within the history of the JamFactory. JamFactory’s Metal Design Studio was established in 1992 and steel has featured in the studio’s technical and cultural capacity uniting diverse approaches to contemporary metal crafts from jewellery and product design to public art projects. The organisation is well placed to be a leader in presenting such a thematic exhibition.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a substantial publication and will include functional objects, sculptural works and installations as well as video documentary, models and sectional prototypes related to specific interiors, buildings and environments. The exhibition will focus exclusively on Australian works and projects while the publication and anticipated symposium will place those works in a dynamic international context. The curators for the project is JamFactory’s Senior Curator Margaret Hancock Davis.

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