Ashley Eriksmoen has been named 2022’s Australian Furniture Design Award (AFDA) winner by Stylecraft and the National Gallery of Victoria. As one of Australia’s most prestigious furniture design awards, Eriksmoen’s entry caught the jury’s attention with its exceptional and confronting design. Canberra based, Eriksmoen’s practice breaks down the foundations of furniture’s boundaries. Her entry parallels her practice, rejecting ideals of resources and waste.

Her entry, ‘The Dream or: the view from here is both bleak and resplendent’, takes a pronounced stance in criticising waste practices and reforming furniture designs. The chaise is constructed from discarded timber; its palette references the rise of modernism on the Australian landscape. Its design brings two conflicting feelings. The user can either feel comforted by its utility or be haunted with eco-anxiety by its design. Sometimes, the user feels both.

Simone LeAmon, jury chair and The Hugh Williamson Curator of Contemporary Design and Architecture, National Gallery of Victoria, praised the entry with its “innovative and thought-provoking design” that keenly conveys “the potential of postconsumer waste”.

“An exquisite construction, the furniture design belies a sombre yet critical message alerting us to the relationships between consumer waste, natural resources, deforestation and habitat destruction. The work implores us to consider strategies for creating sustainable new furniture designs from the wealth of resources that we already have at our disposal,” says LeAmon.

The AFDA award comes with a $20,000 cash prize and a two-week residency program at JamFactory. Additionally, Eriksmoen will be mentored by Stylecraft and works with them to produce a new furniture design.

The exhibitions of ‘The Dream, or: the view from here is both bleak and resplendent’ and the other four finalists’ works are on display until Friday, March 25th in the Stylecraft showroom.

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