Melbourne Design Week 2024: Verdant

Presented in partnership with Minaal Lawn, Sarah Parkes and Abbotsford Convent as part of Melbourne Design Week 2024.  

Verdant is an exhibition of collaborative works by contemporary artists Minaal Lawn and Sarah Parkes. Working with ceramics, Minaal Lawn (Dja Dja Warrung, Central Victoria) celebrates the reconciliation of her Indian heritage with her Australian upbringing. Sarah Parkes (Gunai/Kurnai, South Gippsland) knots and weaves narratives of place and home into her large-scale sculptural rope works. Collectively they draw on their complex relationships with the rural landscape they inhabit, expressing this exchange of ideas through a series of works specifically created for Melbourne Design Week 2024. 

The undeniable influence of the artists’ rural landscape and its beauty is explored both through material and narrative. Repurposed silage wrap, the sporadic lilac hues of grass seed and familiar elements, such as a fence or a tree, form reference points in their understanding. Verdant merges the artists’ practices with their personal topography of life and quiet observations, while showing us how essential a collaborative approach is when navigating new terrain. 

Über

Dja Dja Wurrung

Glenlyon based contemporary artist Minaal Lawn (b.1977) makes ceramic works that celebrate the beauty of a reconciliation between her Indian heritage and Australian upbringing. Her work examines the transformation from an inherited culture, revisiting childhood stories and object symbolism, to one that is owned. Minaal has held solo exhibitions throughout Australia and has been a finalist for numerous awards. She has also collaborated with designers to create in-store installations and product specific works. 

Gunai/Kurnai

South Gippsland artist and designer Sarah Parkes knots and weaves narratives of place and home into her sculptural rope works. Working under Smalltown, Sarah has created large scale textural installations for commercial interiors and private clients across Australia and internationally. 

Erreichbarkeit

Die Salon is wheelchair accessible. The Mural Hall is wheelchair accessible through the Salon entrance. 

Melbourne Design Week and the Victorian Design Program are initiatives of the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.