Bankston x Design Nature Agency: Material as Memory
At The StandardX Hotel in Fitzroy, Edition Office's architectural sculptures met Bankston's Casts collection, in an installation built around what materials hold onto.
On Thursday 27 August, Bankston and Edition Office installed Material as Memory in the lobby of The StandardX Hotel, Fitzroy, facilitated by Design Nature Agency (DNA). The name comes from a simple premise: materials hold memory in a way images cannot.
Cast in Memory
Edition Office showed architectural sculptures drawn from key projects, including Hawthorn House, Hill House and Fish Creek House. The display units were draped with prints of Casts by Edition Office silhouette imagery, alongside a landscape image of Lake Seal, Mount Field National Park, Tasmania, taken by the practice’s director, Aaron Roberts. On the shelves, pieces from the Casts collection were left out for guests to handle, an invitation to feel the tactility and weight of the hardware directly rather than at a distance.
“Certain materials hold the ability to change and patina with age and use, objects where memory is worn into their surface in a very physical way. At StandardX we couple two vessels for memory; the Casts patinated bronze handles from our front door, worn and polished back to raw metal with use over time, and photos of Lake Seal, Mount Field National Park, holding the personal memory of an experience in an ancient land. Both are material, physical and linked to memory.”
Aaron Roberts, Edition Office
"History can be captured in many forms, but it is most intimately understood through materials. The user’s thumb print on metal, a chip in wood from a row or an embrace beside it. All unanticipated moments worth preserving and celebrating."
- Olivia Sholler, Design Nature Agency
In the Room
An intimate group of Melbourne’s designers and artists gathered for the exhibition’s launch, among them Adrianna Hanna, Hecker Guthrie, who also designed the interior of The StandardX, Ben Mazey, Claudia Lau of House Editions, and Jessie French. Guests mingled through the lobby, moving between the display units and the sculptures, over Hugo Spritz gin cocktails, fresh oysters and a charcuterie board, all provided by The StandardX. The setting put the two studios’ materials in the same room as the people who specify and write about them, rather than behind glass.
Material as Memory is on view through September. A limited number of Casts by Bankston x Edition Office tote bags and Material as Memory prints are available to those who visit the installation.
Credits:
Host & Venue: The StandardX Hotel, Fitzroy
Facilitated by: Design Nature Agency
Architectural Sculptures: Edition Office
Hardware: Casts by Bankston x Edition Office
Interior Design (The StandardX): Hecker Guthrie
Photography: Brook James
