Design Storytellers

Established in 2011, Broached Commissions was founded as a creative agency whose purpose is to commission designers to produce ambitious and finely crafted, collectable design pieces with the capacity to reflect on or disrupt the traditions of design. Through a series of thematically rich collections, Broached Commissions has cemented a position that is unique in the world of Australian design. Each collection is anchored within an overarching creative framework, providing a sounding board against which designers can propose works that must respond to a central narrative, binding the work together.

This exhibition presents works from across four Broached Commission collections: Broached East, Broached Colonial, Broached Exceptions and Broached Monsters. Together the exhibited works convey the ongoing Broached Commissions project of interrogating globalisation, and the upheavals it causes, through the history of material culture.

Creative director of Broached Commissions, Lou Weis, says: ‘We believe that design gives form to power. Ambition has no inherent form; designers invent it. On behalf of others – governments, corporations and individuals – designers create the tactile experience of persuasion and desire. In particular we are interested in design since the Industrial Revolution and the peak of the colonial period. It is from this period forward that modern Australia comes into being’.

Participating designers

Trent Jansen (Aus)
Adam Goodrum (Aus)
Lucy McRae (Aus)
Charles Wilson (Aus)
Max Lamb (England)
Azuma Makoto (Japan)
Chen Lu (Taiwan/Aus)
Naihan Li (China)
John Warwicker (England/Aus)
Artists and Designers from Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency (Aus)
Mimi Jung (Korea/USA)
Ma Yangsong/MAD Architects (China)