The Endless Interior : Exhibition

^{Fooks, E. & Fooks, E. (1957) Interior of house, probably George Smorgon’s home in East St. Kilda. State Library of Victoria}

The Endless Interior comprises two parts, and borrows from Frederick Kiesler’s conceptual work of architecture of the same title - merging spirituality, ergonomics and pragmatics into a new housing typology - by applying a similar provocation to the antipodean context.

His is a city of interiors located in the heart of public spaces. The complex weave of the drawing links cave to cave in a web, as if the visible city is but the cover for a single vast interior, a system of chambers carved into the landscape like the interconnected spaces of a mine. He insists that there were not only extraordinary individuals, but extraordinary groups and, most significantly, meeting places, private apartments, studios, and above all cafés where we would gather.

Frederick Kiesler, Progressive Architecture, July 1961

Part 1_________________________
‘The Biography of the Émigré (Object)’ is an ongoing curatorial collaboration between independent researcher Jeromie Maver and Professor Alan Pert. Assembling a collection of never-before-seen furniture pieces and objects gifted from private collections across Melbourne, these “émigré objects” - central to the exhibition - tell the story of forced migration, antipodean exile, and new beginnings. Through engagement and interaction with these pieces, awareness of their value and merit – paired with biographical insight into their makers and designers - prompts dialogue around questions of attribution and recognition.

An archival assemblage in themselves, these biographies of object and maker reiterates interdisciplinarity that emerged between, architects, artists, designers, cabinetmakers, and their clients. Concurrently, their individual approaches legitimise issues of research into making, provenance, exhibition history, preservation, conservation, and reception. Many crucial pieces of émigré interiors are still to be found, elevated or even rescued from auction houses, mid-century stores and online marketplaces – an exercise in itself as endless as the interior Kiesler referred to.

Part 2 _________________________
‘From Austria to the Antipodes’ is an exhibition intensifying research and outputs previously produced by academics that sit within the Australian Centre for Architectural History, Urban and Cultural Heritage (ACAHUCH).

Notable outcomes include research exploring the oeuvre of Ernest Fooks and previous exhibitions like The House Talks Back (2016), Excavating Modernism : Stylistic Species (2019) and New Horizons (2023). European exiles cast their influence across Australasian artistic and built environment practice, contributing to Australian modernism through the nucleus of the fully designed and carefully crafted interior.

Significant material culture from this crucible of modernity seen in ‘The Biography of the Émigré (Object)’ inform exploratory artefacts produced by Melbourne School of Design students in Critical and Curatorial Practices in Design. This subject, led by Professor Alan Pert and Professor Philip Goad, creates a curatorial laboratory testing new interpretations of émigré practice.

Through these dual forces, this exhibition aspires - as a biographical exploration into émigré and object – to introduce our audience to the origins of ideas, the hidden histories of objects and the role and relationships of their makers and designer. We hope to stimulate new forms of research, exploration and dialogue by giving the object an opportunity to speak for itself and the audience a place in the narrative.

This exhibition, designed and produced by Theo Blankley is supported by The Jock Simmie Architectural History, Urban and Cultural Heritage Research Fund. Its generosity furthers knowledge and access to architectural history, conservation and heritage.