This artwork standing mirror is one part of Elliat Rich’s Other Places series of limited-edition furniture design. This mirror is showing in the NGV, the theme is designing women, by focusing on the work, histories and achievements of designing women, the exhibition reveals that female designers, in our culture they also have a number of iconic and thought-provoking work. When I first saw this mirror, I thought it was just a simple mirror to let people see their clothes neatly. Then I found that this mirror did not like the ordinary mirror that people usually use. Instead, it could not use very clearly, and had a very vague feeling. What’s even more surprising is that his mirror was green and blue. When people look at it, they have a fantastic feeling because they cannot see the picture very clearly. At that time, I did not realize the special meaning of this mirror. I just wonder why a mirror should be designed like this and about this exhibition why women cannot be acknowledged for their professional contributions.
In fact, people always ignore that women offer fresh perspectives on the contributions for the practice and profession of design, women designers have a very important development in design. People have a prejudice that women should not be in this industry. They think women will lose customers in many choices, they cannot coordinate the relationship between children, family and design, and they cannot tailor their working hours to fit their personal needs. It is clear that discrimination against women is much more deeply embedded across our culture. But design is certainly different. in nature It is not technically or managerially. First of all it needs foremost creative and involves special visualization skills. Little is known about women designers in the Australian graphic design industry, but Elliat Rich give a very beautiful example for the women design.
Elliat Rich want to inspire people to think, to have imagination for design. Then according to Philippa Nicole Barr, he writes, ‘All of the works upheld Rich’s fascination with the local landscape and her interest in using design to craft a new vision of the future.’ This artwork drawing on entitled draws on observations of the Australian landscape, inspired by Rich’s experiences living in Alice Springs and driving along desert roads, standing mirror reflects her observations of the distinct haze of the distant ranges. Women have a greater advantage in design, they will feel more delicately about what they see, and then design it. Elliat Rich’s design is trying to capture that and make it into something tangible. She thinks the feeling can become “their own mythical things” with “their own entity and presence”, so she create the standing mirror.
Standing mirror shifts from morning to dusk, from north to south. it is a musing on these observations. This mirror catches and bend the light, the colours blend, reflect, merge. Elliat Rich explains that on the one hand the mirror is a part of illusion, it is a solid gas, on the other hand the mirror is the shadow of a mountain, it is part thing as well as it is a space for reflection. Elliat Rich’s artwork creates an environment of inspiration, vision and entrepreneurship in her own communities. Standing mirror it allows people being to different kinds of thought including ideas, beliefs and values. Standing mirror opened people’s eyes to a way of living with both art and design. This design Based on people’s expectations of furniture, but beyond that expectation, it transcends function, sculpture and art and is just can expressed in design language. This is the beginning of an ongoing exploration into imagined myths, reminders of present wonders and desired futures. This mirror summarizes cumulative observations, Elliat Rich use a very long time to view different places to create this artwork. People always think that women are illogical and inexperienced that men are better suited to undertake this work，but they are more patient than men. For this artwork, Elliat Rich have spent a lot of years trying to name that colour, part emerald and part magenta, she wants to capture that quality. It is what Elliat’ve seen, and what Elliat’ve imagined, furniture that evokes and embodies the landscapes of Australia. It encapsulates accumulated observations, imagined myths, reminders of present wonders and desired futures, these are the meaning of standing mirror. In order to create, she went to a very remote place to observe, standing mirror use different materials and bound those enigmatic elements together in a magic feeling. All speak directly to an experience of and within the Australian landscape, the distinct Australian haze that renders the land mute but vibrant.
So in my opinion women are playing a more and more important role in the wider contemporary design industry. They also contribute a lot to the development of design, and they cannot be ignored. It also emphasizes the argument that the further popularity of female designers and the more gender-inclusive concerns of design historians are not negotiable. Male and female designers should have equal status, people should not repudiate them.
Reference:
Figure 1. Standing mirror, Elliat Rich, 2018, Photographs by Sean Fennessy courtesy of Sophie Gannon Gallery.
Bruce, Margaret. and Lewis, Jenny. April 1990. Women designers — is there a gender trap?
Connory, Jane. 2017. Plotting the Historical Pipeline of Women in Graphic Design.
Carolan, Nicholas. From the red centre to the heart, design that’s going places.
‘Designwork 02’ At Sophie Gannon Gallery, The Design Files. https://thedesignfiles.net/2018/03/designwork-02-at-sophie-gannon-gallery
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