The NGV has announced Sydney designer Adam Goodrum as the winner of the national Rigg Design Prize for 2015 with his work Unfolding, a series of translucent folding house structures, overlaid with dichroic film, which reflect a luminous array of colourful images across the gallery walls.
The triennial Rigg Design Prize is the most prestigious accolade for contemporary furniture and object design in Australia, awarding $30,000 to an Australian design practitioner.
Two of the biggest names in international contemporary design, Gijs Bakker (Co-Founder, Droog Design) and Wava Carpenter (Former Curator, Design Miami), judged the Rigg Design Prize for 2015.
The judges commented, ‘Adam’s work proves that design has the potential for the unexpected and the new. Unfolding is very exciting, pushing the boundaries of what design can be with its dreamy, hazy and poetic atmosphere. We hope that the public will be as surprised and delighted by Adam’s work as we were.
‘Of the overall exhibition, the seven shortlisted designers presented extremely high-quality bodies of work. The Rigg Design Prize is very unique in that each designer has the freedom to create their own environment in a dedicated space.’
Revealing a picture of contemporary Australian design that is independent, original, and expressive of present-day issues and values, the Rigg Design Prize 2015 invited seven designers to exhibit bodies of work that communicated their practice and ideas. The exhibition of all seven designers’ works opens at the NGV from today 18 September and closes on 7 February 2016.
Adam Goodrum, winner of the Rigg Design Prize 2015, said, ‘I’m incredibly thrilled and humbled to have been selected from such a talented and diverse group of Australian designers, all of whom I admire. Unfolding represents a new expression of my practice and my continued exploration of the idea of ‘unfolding’.
‘I thank the judges, curator Simone LeAmon, and the NGV for making such a significant commitment to contemporary design in Australia.’
Tony Ellwood, Director, NGV, said, ‘The Rigg Design Prize is unparalleled in its ambition to champion the cultural value of contemporary design in Australia and I thank our shortlisted designers for their inspiring and moving contributions.
‘I congratulate Adam Goodrum as the winner of the Rigg Design Prize for 2015 with his magnificent work Unfolding which indicates that design can be many things – an object, experience, encounter, idea or concept.’
From a kaleidoscopic and exuberant reimagining of a Baroque-inspired dining room to domestic furniture woven from pandanus leaves and imbued with the cultural storytelling of its Indigenous weavers, the Rigg Design Prize highlights some of Australia’s most compelling design practitioners.
Separate, immersive spaces highlight the exceptional practice of each designer: Adam Goodrum (NSW); Brodie Neill (TAS); Daniel Emma (SA); Kate Rohde (VIC); Khai Liew (SA); Korban Flaubert (NSW); Koskela (NSW) in collaboration with the weavers of Elcho Island Arts (NT).
Established in 1994 and now curated by the newly established Department of Contemporary Design and Architecture at the NGV, this year the invitational prize for the first time expanded beyond Victoria to include designers from across Australia.
The exhibition is an opportunity to explore and engage with contemporary Australian design, which inspires, delights and challenges. Working across different materials, mediums and object types, the work of the designers appears as both purpose-built installations and collections of new and existing works.
The Rigg Design Prize is generously supported by the Cicely & Colin Rigg Bequest, managed by Equity Trustees. The prize is a legacy of the late Colin Rigg (1895–1982), a former Secretary of the NGV’s Felton Bequests’ Committee.
Past award recipients of the prize include: Neville Assad (1994), Robert Baines (1997), Louise Weaver (2003), Sally Marsland (2006), Simone LeAmon (2009) and Marian Hosking (2012).
The Rigg Design Prize 2015 is on display from 18 September 2015 – 7 February 2016 at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia. Entry is free.
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