Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
University of Lincoln
Domestic renewal: a table re:set
New work and touring exhibition on the 'Domestic Renewal', curated Dr Rohan Nicol at the Australia National University, Australia. He was the only non-Australian designer selected and invited to participate in this project.
The exhibition is an investigation and interpretation of the domestic table and its conventional use. Each designer was asked to consider and reinterpret the subject. Cherry investigated the history of the domestic table over the past three centuries, with a specific focus on culinary use. Cherry investigated the use of condiments, especially those which today are commonplace but which once were rare and valuable. The topic of 'renewal' was addressed through reuse and reappropriation (Upcycling) of 3 old silver watch cases in his design studio, which he had before designated as scrap. He redesigned, refurbished and reworked them to create 2 new condiment dishes, specifically one salt and one pepper container, each with sufficient similarities to be considered a pair, yet different enough to have their own individual visual identity. One of these is fitted with a European oak handle refashioned from 19th century lace bobbins purchased in a Barcelona market.
He researched the history of all three watch cases and was able to identify their provenance: the makers, places and original dates of manufacture and their metal composition. The salt dish was the only watch case to be manufactured in Chester in 1884 by the Robert Pringle company while the pepper pot was made by Charles Hancock of New Street Birmingham in 1887. Both are marked as Standard (Sterling) Silver. He has given new and completely different life to objects otherwise intended to be melted down as scrap. Issues of transformation, environmental sustainability, materiality, history, and design processes were all merging themes in this project.
The research was shared with the public through the printed catalogue produced by ANU and via the touring exhibition which has been shown at: Craft ACT, Canberra; Craft Victoria; Jam Factory, Adelaide.
