Field Objects is a small vignette of outdoor inspired pieces, reimagined through craft and material. A collapsible sling chair, a firewood carry bag, a tyre swing, are nostalgic typologies, drawn from memory and every day use to celebrate a halcyon life outdoors.
These pieces sit between function and reflection. They are practical in origin, but here become slower, more deliberate, more fragile, celebrating the gestures of hand making making and the pure tactility of a luxury material.
Playful yet considered, the works draw on a shared visual language of simplicity and durability, but also with an inherent irony – a tyre swing made from both a salvaged tyre, and salvaged leather, and a stone axe, designed for brute force, hand sculpted in the softest of stones available, making a brutal object extremely fragile.
Presented as part of Melbourne Design Week 2026, LOST HiDE is a new exhibition curated by Emma Elizabeth that explores sustainability, collectability, and contemporary Australian design through the reuse of discarded upholstery leather donated by Swiss Design. Staged at Abbotsford Convent, the exhibition brings together leading Australian designers including Tom Fereday, Adam Goodrum, Richards Stanisich and Amanda Briskin to create bespoke works that blur the boundaries between art, design, and material experimentation. Drawing on Emma Elizabeth’s international background and long-standing role championing Australian design globally, the show reframes waste leather as a cultural material while imagining a more progressive future for Australian design.
