Rest & Repeat

They say a lot of things about silence. Of awkward silences, pregnant pauses that silence is golden.. but I had never anticipated silence could be quite this elegant.




Object Gallery is currently hosting the 2009 Design Now! exhibition, showcasing the works of the best 18 design graduates across the nation in six categories, including design for home, communications and industry.

Sydney design partnership Derrick & Christina, recent graduates from Visual Communications at the University of Technology Sydney are among the 18 to be featured, with their work Rest & Repeat. A visual and tactile exploration of Erik Satie's composition 'Vexations', a short passage of chord progressions accompanied by a bassline that is repeated twice in each repetition of the piece (which is meant to be repeated 840 times), it successfully presents repetition in a way that is both calming and beautiful and at odds with usual connotations of boredom, staleness and noise.


The musical composition is stark and eerie and the two have chosen to represent it visually using a colour palette of white and grey. Derrick, now a digitial media designer at Freemantle Media, who sub majored in film and video has created a collection of motion graphics entitled 'Rest'. Venetian blinds open and shut, the viewer is transported down a rectangular tunnel, there are swirls and repeat patterns of boxes that rise and fall. Each scene transitions flawlessly into the next, an indication of how well considered the work is yet how effortlessly it is played out. The young designer has been known for his quirky and colourful animations, from peanuts walking on stilts to whirling red zebras to coloured blobs falling from see-saws and this is his most mature work to date.

His design partner Christina Perry produced a series of wallpapers and stories entitled 'Repeat', a physical exploration of repetition. From afar the wall coverings appear bright and vaguely textured, a closer inspection revealing the intracacies of the work. One appears reminiscent of a snowflake, delicate and ephemeral while another bears resemblance to pianola paper. Christina handcrafted the paper, yet the final product does not seem at all laboured. Her collection of short stories are both sweet and intriguing, her readership of Murakami and Fitzgerald subtly discernable.


The collaborative work is mesmerising and successful with the two designers retaining their individuality whilst exploring the same concept. And in a time where everything seems to be shouted and noisy, from advertising, product placement and political debate, their use of white and peace produces a work that is a simulatneously bold and gentle and worthy of exhibition.

Design Now! opend at Object gallery on 17 April and will remain until 21 June in Sydney, before travelling to Melbourne. Look out for Eric Ng's work 'Scenarios for a Sustainable Future', which is also on show.

By Sonya Gee