A One-Hour Exhibition (The Inside Story from MDW)
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The one-Hour exhibition was presented as a temporary exhibition whereby anyone could exhibit in the show, so long as they brought a seat along and remained within the space for 60 minutes. Little did they know that the purpose of the show was their attendance, and not the seats themselves.
By Dale Hardiman
Photo Credits: Catherine Feint & George Shvili
Seven years ago when Melbourne Design Week first launched, we hosted our first group exhibition titled 26 Original Fakes.
The exhibition invited 26 designers to hack, repurpose, and reevaluate the replica HAL Chair designed by Jasper Morrison (with his approval).
Tom Skeehan and I began the collaborative platform Friends & Associates in 2016 to ask creative practitioners to look outside their regular practice at particular topics.
At the time, conceptual exhibitions focusing on furniture, lighting, and interior products were scarce in Australia.
In 2022, there were 350 events as part of Melbourne Design Week, with over 10 group exhibitions along with the launch of the Melbourne Design Fair.
The purpose of Friends & Associates has not only been to provoke creatives into thinking differently about their practice, but to also try new ideas.
After organising 14 group shows over the past 10 years, seven of which were for Melbourne Design Week, we realised we had both an audience and a platform.
In February this year, I met with curator and researcher Myf Doughty to talk about a possible collaborative exhibition for Melbourne Design Week.
We both have a great interest in finding ways to allow people to meet each other without defining it as a ‘networking function’.
We came up with a Trojan horse-style exhibition, with the key question being ‘How do you get creatives in a neutral space to meet?’
The one-hour exhibition was presented as a temporary exhibition whereby anyone could exhibit in the show, so long as they brought a seat along and remained within the space for 60 minutes. Little did they know that the purpose of the show was their attendance, and not the seats themselves.
Prior to the show, we personally invited both editors of magazines, and high-profile Australian designers, while also contacting heads of programs at universities to invite their design students.
At 11:30 am on Sunday the 21st of May, we had our first exhibitor. Jan Henderson arrived with 30 books, all of which meant something to her – these books were to be stacked to form the seat.
The way the exhibition was planned was that exhibitors would arrive, sign in on a printed business card with their arrival time, name, artwork title, and wait with their seats until they could be photographed.
We measured the distance between each exhibitor with a stick that was roughly 1.5 metres apart, thinking in a 200 square metre area we’d have adequate space and this would allow for strangers to meet each other.
By 12:05 pm, five minutes after the official start time of the exhibition, we were overwhelmed. By 12:10 pm we had run out of floor space to place exhibitors 1.5 metres apart and were placing them anywhere we could find a space.
Over the 60 minutes, we had 73 exhibitors (10 exhibitors were denied the title of exhibitor for leaving early).
As planned, our exhibitors were high-profile Australian designers, editors of magazines, students of design, as well as the general public who had seen the program online.
If participants were unable to bring a seat along, we provided a single A4 sheet of paper so they could still participate, and some opted to use exhibition catalogues from other Melbourne Design Week exhibitions to sit on.
The unexpected happened as the exhibitors’ 60 minutes ran out – they left.
We were worried that people would want to stick around and socialise longer than the 60 minutes, but by 1:30pm the exhibition space was empty and we could all leave.
At a total cost of approximately $50 to run the exhibition, four Instagram posts to advertise, and two hours of our time, we had 83 people in a room at midday on a Sunday, all informally meeting each other.
For more information about the brilliantly inventive Dale Hardiman head here
And his one-hour exhibition stars at MDW were:
Ailie Miller, Alia Ferdowsian, Alessandro Ludovico, Anne U, Bec Sewell, Bel Williams, Bella Smythe, Ben McCarthy, Bolaji, Bonhula Yunupingu & Damien Wright, Bridget Thompson, Cal Dolby, Calum Hurley, Campbell Miller, Carman Skeehan, Caroline Collom + Kathleen Prentine, Catherine Feint, Charlie White, Christine Henty, Claire + Drew + Jock, Claudia + Pie Pie, Cuilda + Sam, Damien Cresp, Daniella El-Fahkri, Dillon Webster, Ela Egidy, Elliat Rich, Ethan Hunter, Fred, George Shvili, Georgia Stevenson, Gordon Tait, Hettie, Isabella Henty Hardiman, Izzy Tan, Jacob W, James Clark, James McNab, James Whiting, Jamie, Jan Henderson, Jill Stevenson, Joanne Odisho, Joel Tito, Jordan Brown, Josh Popow, Kathleen Prentice + Caroline Collom, Kholi, Lauren Brunley, Lucy Whitelaw, Mahshid Ferdowsian, Marinos Drakopoulos, Mel + Mark, Michael Pham, Michael Seddon, Milly McEwan, Mim, Nathan Oakley, Paige Miller, Phillip Johnson, Rickie-Lee, Ryan McGoldrick & Putri Karina, Sam, Sarah Mair, Stefanou, Suzy Annetta, Tam Nicholas Tran, Timothy Moore, Tom Fereday, Tyke Rashid, Willem Gribble, Zitong Xu, and Zoë Ryan
