When in Rome, Swing Design Gallery 2025

This series incorporates a selection of work made across my home in Australia, a residency at Guldagergaard in Denmark, and most recently in the Netherlands, from the last few years. Expressing concepts of reimagined mythology with elements of the cute and cartoonish, these hand built ceramics explore classical amphora forms adorned with serpents and creatures not- quite recognisable. Living dynamism and rock become one; perhaps fossilisation has locked these creatures in place over time, or maybe they had been carved in purposefully with more detail at one point in time that has since worn away. It invokes cosmic feelings of rediscovery and are a reminder of how little we understand about reality, when fables, history, and lived experience intertwine. 

| When in Rome, the first cycle of an exhibition project curated by Angela da Silva, which places collectible works of contemporary art and design in dialogue with historic architectural containers in the city of Rome, a place of inspiration and a favored destination for generations of international artists since antiquity. This is the first time that the gallery, founded in 2011 by Angela da Silva, is engaging with the spaces of Palazzo Antonelli, an exceptional, hidden-away place in the heart of Baroque Rome. When in Rome exposes us to the work of some of the most sophisticated young creators on the collectible design scene, drawing an intimate map that dialogues with history, architecture, memory, and the nature of spaces. Old meets new as the materials, plant life, and scents of the site mix with new forms. The objects on display – vases, sculptures, lamps, mirrors, and chairs – are both functional and evocative, in symbiosis with their container. For one day, the history of Palazzo Antonelli, whose structure dates to the 16th century, will intertwine with the work of five young female designers who come from different backgrounds and places but have a common investigative and aesthetic approach that evokes archetypes and lost worlds. |