Stainless steel has much more going for it than its strength and seamless uniformity. The Tait Design Studio has been experimenting with this enduring material, with surprising results revealed at Melbourne Design Week (MDW) in our showroom 14–23 May.
When heat meets metal, something unexpected happens. A colour emerges, coaxed into being by temperature alone – part science, part instinct, and part serendipity. This is the territory we’ve been exploring, and this Melbourne Design Week, we’re inviting you in. The LUSTRE exhibition is born of obsession, a deep and restless engagement with metal. Founding Director Gordon Tait has spent countless hours pushing stainless steel to its chromatic limits – experimenting first in a domestic oven, then in industrial kilns large enough for an entire chair, employing various treatments to transform the surface.
The world Tait wants: creative, experimental & full of potential.
The intriguing results dance through the light spectrum. Through the precise application of heat – reaching temperatures as high as 750 degrees – and other processes, R&D experiments have yielded eight distinct finishes, each one a different expression of the same material. They will be displayed along a catwalk within the Fitzroy showroom, inviting visitors to reflect, compare and linger. The vehicle for this exploration is the stainless steel Swing Chair, chosen for its clean geometry which allows the metal’s surface to become the protagonist. Not every experiment succeeded. Results were beautiful, surprising, and difficult to replicate. One finish – a luminous gold – arrived almost entirely by accident, and has become a personal favourite precisely because of that.
Most of these finishes will not enter the standard offering – the variables of heat treatment are too difficult to control at scale for that kind of consistency. But LUSTRE is about exploration and discovery, an argument for the value of curiosity itself and the courage to experiment without guarantee. This spirit of open-ended inquiry, of learning as much from the failures as the triumphs, defines the exhibition’s character and the impulse to share what you find – even when it cannot be repeated.
LUSTRE runs Thursday 14–Saturday 23 May, with the official opening event on Friday 15 May at 9.30am in the Tait Melbourne showroom. Visitors can also glimpse the new expanded Swing Collection.
Attend the opening
We’re delighted to be part of a couple of additional exhibitions at Melbourne Design Week. Firstly, a bespoke version of our Correa Chair will be on show at ‘100 Chairs‘ at Abbotsford Convent, produced by Friends & Associates. If you happen to visit on Saturday 23 May at 11am, you’ll hear our Founding Director Gordon Tait take part in a casual floor talk co-hosted by the DIA called ‘What a Chair Can Be’. Secondly, our Swing Chair is travelling to Kelli Lundberg Art on the Mornington Peninsula courtesy of Adam Goodrum’s inclusion in the ‘Tall Poppy‘ exhibition. Join curator Tiffany Jade, Gordon, and other panellists for a discussion on Sun 24 May at 11am.
Melbourne Design Week is an initiative of the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria and is curated and delivered by the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). Visit designweek.melbourne to view the full program.
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Read More