It is rare to come across an Australian who lives in Alice Springs and even more surprising when they turn out to be a designer who has work in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Victoria and who has exhibited work at the Venice Biennale - but then again Elliat Rich is not your average designer.
The Different Thoughts Collection by Elliat Rich for Stylecraft consists of The Other is More Same Than Different credenza, The Moment Always Passes floor lamp and Our Edges are Mist rug. Photography: Haydn Cattach, Styling: Nat Turnball.
Elliat Rich moved to Alice Springs in the centre of Australia in 2004. This unusual move came about after a year long adventure which involved walking over 2000 kilometres with two camels and three donkeys from Sydney to Broken Hill in the far west of NSW. The attraction to the wide open spaces and dessert tones was immediate and her work has been inspired by a connection to the outback and its ancient wonders ever since. Rich moved to Alice Springs with her partner James B. Young and together they established Elbow Workshop in 2013 - with Young creating beautiful leather work and Rich treading the fine line between designer and artist.
The wooden doored version of the Different Thoughts Credenza draped with one of Rich’s Our Edges are Mist rugs from the same collection. Photography: Haydn Cattach, Styling: Nat Turnball.
Working across installations, furniture and lighting products, social projects, public art, one-off and edition pieces, Rich has been acquired by institutions and collectors and exhibited in some of Australia’s most prestigious galleries. In the words of Rich her work is “a creative translation between materials and culture, alive to a broader context of power and social value, always calling on the possibilities of the imagination”. It is this attitude that allows her to flit effortlessly between highly contemporary interior objects that tap into the zeitgeist and meaningful cultural installations that lift the spirit through their use of colour, playful form or heartfelt connection to indigenous culture.
The Our Edges Rug are Mist rug is woven in India from New Zealand wool and art silk.
For her Different Thoughts Collection released in early July by Stylecraft, Rich uses curved shapes that in combination with layered materials offer a complex visual. In the case of the credenza this is constantly changing. Moving a door, for example, creates a new shape or colour as one layer overlaps another.
The Our Edges are Mist rug in ‘Soft’ colour. The rug’s pattern and neutral tones have a strong link to the shapes found in the oak version of the Different Thoughts Credenza.
While the Different Thoughts floor lamp and Our Edges rug don’t have parts that physically move, their materials catch the light and attract the eye to alternative patterns. In the rug this is done through the combination of wool and silk and the interlocking pattern, while in the floor lamp the textured glass elements act as a second diffuser and add a subtle inverted arch shape.
The Our Edges are Mist rug in ‘LIquid’ colour. The rug’s colours echo the strong shades in the acrylic version of the The Other is More Same Than Different credenza.
The Other is More Same Than Different credenza in oak. The shape of the doors allow different geometric combinations to be created.
The Other is More Same Than Different credenza with oak doors.
The graphic quality of The Other is More Same Than Different credenza is very much in evidence in the acrylic version. The overlap of the two different coloured doors creates a third colour as a bold circle in the cabinet’s centre. The frosted acrylic material allows the internal shelving to be on view in a soft and intriguing way. Finger holes to move the doors punctuate the graphic shape.
The Other is More Same Than Different credenza in cyan and violet frosted acrylic.
The Different Thoughts floor lamp has an architectural presence yet is full of softness around the light source, thanks to the slumped glass sheets that hang from the curved arm. The layers blur what exists beyond, creating a romantic view point similar to looking through a gauze covered window.
The Moment Always Passes floor lamp. Photography: Haydn Cattach, Styling: Nat Turnball.
The limited edition work of Elliat Rich is represented by Sophie Gannon Gallery with her most recent work Designing Mythology shown at Sophie Gannon Gallery during July 2020. You can see these beautiful and thought provoking limited edition works here. Deeply research driven, these latest works have come about after years of living in Alice Springs and were imagined and designed in Mparntwe, one of three estates of the unceded land of the Arrernte nation. The result of historical, cosmological, mythical and scientific research after being awarded the NT Creative Fellowship 2018 for the Designing Mythology idea, Rich has created a collection of objects that are steeped in the science behind creation and what is referred to as Warawana mythology - the stories surrounding life and creation by Weaver and embodied by the Australian native plant, the Waratah. The limited edition side table Ode to Waratah made from etched steel, hand etched glass, steel and polypropylene, captures the wonders of this plant in new and surprising ways.
Overhead view of Ode to Waratah side table by Elliat Rich. Hand-etched glass, steel and polypropylene. Photography by James Morgan
Transformation of Weaving is a continuation of some ideas started in an earlier work called Weaver from 2018 and combines vintage mirror with synthetic hair pieces, fluted glass and in the object called Weaver earthly state / honeyeater, gold leaf and paint. The works have a strongly spiritual feeling with their biomorphic shapes stretched and squeezed by the effects of the fluted glass or given a bizarre wig of mauve acrylic fibre.
You can read the full Designing Mythology presentation here.
Her production pieces are available through Stylecraft. For more on her work please go to her website here or follow her on instagram @elliatrich.
Elliat Rich. Portrait by Justin T Kennedy.