Opening to the public on 1 March 2024, the Joy exhibition at Melbourne’s Immigration Museum sees a range of leading Victorian-based artists create installations where every space expresses each creative’s own personal joy—from carefree childhood memories to celebrations of belonging and community.

While creating their own Joy installation, each artist had the chance to use GH Commercial’s renowned Designer Jet® technology to create custom carpet solutions that added an extra element to each installation. The flooring was matched to each space’s unique design, enhancing the joyful elements that are distinct to each artist’s interpretation. 

With Designer Jet®, you can create bespoke designs and an endless array of colours that you would never have imagined possible in carpet. This cutting-edge custom carpet technology provides a versatile, artistic, and functional carpet solution by taking any eye-catching pattern, drawing, or image and using precision engineering to inject the dye into the carpet.

The beloved, multi-talented pop artist and designer Callum Preston created his own unique carpet design that gave life to his vintage, 90s video store installation, Videoland. This retrofit installation is made possible by Designer Jet® technology, which perfectly applied each thoughtfully chosen design element in Callum’s artwork.

To help create this custom carpet solution, GH Commercial, the Flooring Partner for Joy, hosted Callum Preston at their manufacturing facilities during the production of his Joy installation.

“Once I connected with GH Commercial, I was excited to explore the possibilities of custom carpet. To capture that energy of the vintage designs in roller rinks, arcades, movie theatres and video stores, I found that stepping away from the computer and getting loose on a page with a brush pen was the best way,” Callum explains. “To create the motion and excitement I really wanted, I just went wild with it, and this squiggle chaos was the result! The vibrancy of the colours and the amazing detail it captured is really going to make the space sing.”

GH Commercial had the chance to sit down with Callum during his visit to our nearby Geelong manufacturing facilities and learn more about the process and the joyful inspiration behind his Videoland installation. Callum explained that drawing upon his childhood and teenage years inspired him the most, and the concept of the retro video store was an idea he wanted to create for a long time.

“It’s been a project that has been in my mind for many years, but by its nature, it’s really something that needs the perfect situation to arise for it to be possible. So when I was contacted to be a part of Joy at the Immigration Museum, I was so excited to have the right space and feel to execute the idea. Once I realised it was possible, I dove in headfirst and really tried to go wild with the concept.”

Visit the Joy exhibition at Melbourne’s Immigration Museum from March 1st, 2024.

Photography of Callum Preston’s Videoland by Phoebe Powell. Source – Museums Victoria

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