PLAY is an exhbition that allows us to explore the impossible. Play in youth education programs was inaugurated in the early 19th century concept of Kindergarten as an essential part of developing "physical, intellectual and moral powers of all children" (Wilderspin, Samuel 'The Infant System' 1832).

"The opposite of play isn't work: it's boredom"
–Dr. Stuart Brown, National Institute for Play (US)

Playing with materials is a form of synthesising insight– the isolation of COVID has had the unexpected impact of becoming a sandbox for creative ideas: PLAY gives a platform to the articulation of the curiosity and problem solving that has come out of this historic shift in our collective consciousness.

Featured Designers
Alexi Freeman | Dale Hardiman & ACV Studio | Aly Peel (maiike x) | Eileen Braybrook | John Brooks | Elise Cakebread (Cakebread) | Michelle Boyde (BOYDE) | Ed Linacre, Philippa Abbott & Mycelium Studios x Brendon Morse

Image Credit: Courtesy of Elise Cakebread, 2021.

Alexi Freeman

Alexi Freeman, born in Hobart 1978, lives and works in Naarm (Melbourne) and attended the University of Tasmania (UTAS) majoring in printmaking and sculpture by day, whilst spitting anti-colonial spoken word as part of the post-punk scene in Hobart by night, culminating in a mid-set performance during Little Ugly Girls (LUGS) supporting Bikini Kill in 1996: “the weirdest performance ever seen” (Kathleen Hanna).

Freeman then continued to hone his aesthetic in New York, paying the bills in his birthday suit striking poses for an artist who claimed to have given Robert De Niro a happy ending.

Throughout his multi-tonal career, Freeman continued to develop his interdisciplinary, intersectional practice interweaving art, fashion, jewellery and costume, before returning to Australia to relaunch his fashion label AF, which continues to meander wildly.

Alexi Freeman

Dale Hardiman & ACV Studio

Friends are a collection of pins designed and made by ACV Studio from conversations and materials shared with Dale Hardiman from other creative friends from Tasmania and greater Australia.

The Friends pins are a reminder that although during COVID we have been physically separated, we are a supportive community of creative practitioners. The pins can be worn day-to-day, or during video calls as a symbol of sharing and community during isolation.

Hardiman is a multidisciplinary designer working across furniture, lighting and accessory design as well as event and exhibition design, curation, art direction and branding.

ACV Studio is a project by metalsmith and artist Anna Varendorff, hand-making limited edition objects through experimental practice as a designer-maker.

Dale Hardiman
ACV Studio

Aly Peel (maiike x)

Born in Melbourne, Victoria, Aly Peel holds a BA in Fashion Design and established her design practice and label, Maiike in 1999. Maiike has two distinct elements– clothing and soft things, but just one philosophy: to perfect, simplify and evolve.

“I want to perfect the simple things I make. I want the next one to always be better. Making is very important to me. It informs and develops my design. The visual and tactile textures of the materials I use is integral to the success of each piece. The impulse to touch, the feeling of when something is worn and the emotional response to the colours are the things I’m always trying to consider when working in my studio.”

maiike x

Eileen Braybrook

Eileen is a textile designer and craft practitioner working and living in Naarm (Melbourne).

Her playful, conversational style explores colour and texture, mixing nostalgia with otherworldliness. She works across fashion, interiors and experimental knit design.

Eileen's work explores grief and loss, but also joy. She looks out at nature and the diaspora, and the way ancestors and cultural identities shape us.

She completed a BA Textile Design at RMIT majoring in knit in 2013, and has worked as a textile designer for Romance Was Born, Adairs, Wolfgang Scout, Erik Yvon and Country Road. She has taught fashion knitwear at RMIT for the Associate Degree in Fashion Design and has collaborated with artists and makers on a range of exhibitions.

Eileen Braybrook

John Brooks

John Brooks is a Melbourne-based artist working across a range of media. His practice reflects on ideas of interconnectivity and the influence objects and materials have on humans, as well as the anthropomorphic qualities humans project onto objects.

Originally trained as a textile designer, John works predominantly with hand-weaving techniques combined with other mediums such as video, sculpture and installation. He balances his practice with teaching at RMIT in the Advanced Diploma of Textile Design and Development and running workshops teaching people to weave with unconventional materials and found objects on makeshift looms.

“For me, design is a process of playing with materials and learning their properties to inform a variety of outcomes, rather than manipulating materials to fit a preconceived idea.”

John Brooks

Elise Cakebread (Cakebread)

Elise Cakebread is a textile-based artist and designer. She founded her textile design studio Cakebread in 2013.

Driven by experimentation within traditional textile processes and techniques, her work focuses on the tensions created by the unusual or unexpected contrasts that emerge between materials, forms, colours, textures and scale. Through these methods she explores ideas of materiality, tactility, craft, disposability and the ornamental.

Her cross-disciplinary approach gives life to sculptural work, decorative objects, accessories and soft furnishings.

Elise Cakebread Second String was supported by a grant from Creative Victoria/Regional Arts Victoria.

Cakebread

Ed Linacre, Philippa Abbott & Mycelium Studios x Brendon Morse

This design collective have been experimenting with mycelium composites and developing mycelium based biodegradable materials in their laboratory at Mycelium Studios for more than 18 months. The first stage involves hyphae growth from spawn inoculation in agar, forming into Mycelium.

This work is a collaboration that explores a shared belief in the need for biomimicry and ecological design to drive transitioning to a climate adapted future. Within this, the overhaul of industrial systems to be closed loop, whilst engaging in finding creative, possible and rapidly scalable solutions to deal with the mess society has created. These shared beliefs are combined with a deep curiosity, a joy in experimentation and now a shared love for mycelium as a material. The nexus of the group brings together established designers, ecologists, makers, and creative thinkers to explore the material, experiment with it as a scaled manufacturing process and develop new products and design methods.

Cooper Industrial Design
Mycelium Studios