It’s a celebration of modern craftsmanship in Melbourne: the Ketel One Commission opens at the PinUp gallery in Collingwood. Alice Blackwood brings news from the opening night.

It’s an exhibition that uses the entire floor – and air space – available.

Bisected by tables tilted at drastic angles, the space is alive with myriad ideas and stories, each revealing the creative process of 16 Melbourne practitioners.

 

Those 16 involved in the Ketel One Commission project and exhibition have used table, floor and ceiling to communicate their practice, while also expressing their views on the importance of craftsmanship in modern times – and to add even further to this, exemplifying the dedicated craftsmanship behind Ketel One vodka.

It’s been an ambitious project for all involved, requiring reflection and thought at the fore, and ingenuity and creative skill in the translation of this into a visual submission.

 

The resulting work – put forward by each practitioner and now on show as part of the exhibition – was judged by a panel of experts with one winning submission, and two highly commended.

Tim Fleming took out the top prize, which will see him attend the Dutch Design Week and visit the Nolet Distillery in Schiedam later this year.

 

Tim Fleming

Tim’s submission, entitled 2114 Cult of Stealth, is a fictional museum display of ceremonial objects used to worship the stealth bomber by the ’Cult of Stealth’… after ’The Fall’.

The concept behind this is based on the “cataclysmic events of 2082” which sends the world into technological darkness.

100 years on, we (the viewer) can study some of the “perverse coping mechanisms that humans created to add meaning to their lives once previous systems of belief had collapsed”.

 

Ewan McEoin and Tim Fleming

It’s been both a demanding and rewarding experience for all those involved; some creatives are enjoying the added exposure the project has brought them, while others have found the reflective process both enlightening and useful in the formation of new ideas and future projects.

For Highly Commended recipients, Justin Hutchinson and Jessie Fairweather, they’re revelling in the knowledge that their awards were created during the judging process, to acknowledge the outstanding quality of their work.

Ketel One Commission is showing at Melbourne’s Pin Up from Wednesday 25 May to Sunday 29 May.