2022 Prize Designs for Modern Furniture and Lighting
Table Units
Containa Table Series | 2021 – Best Table of the Year
Designers: Dean Norton, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Manufacturer: Dean Norton, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Project Description
Containa is furniture series with a degree of enigma and mystery, exploring the narrative of the vessel and its contents. Created for “Narrative Goods” exhibition presented by Modern Times Gallery in Melbourne and part of Craft Contemporary Festival.
The brief was to explore the possibility of functional design to inspire delight, provoke conversation and embody the story, bringing craft together with a conceptual expression of ideas. Created during the lockdown months in Melbourne 2021, this series of work is an exploration of the collective experience during this time. Symbolic of both confinement, solitude, protection, and the unknown.
Editions 01, 02,03 + 04 focus on an organic, sculptural, wood-turned form, housed within shards of frosted glass, protected, still, and delicately floating in what appears to be a blanket of fog.
Containa consists of four editions combining clear and black frosted glass with an internal sculptural form finished in a variety of lacquered colors. The glass shards are miter bonded with clear resin and the timber sculpture is hand turned by a local woodturning manufacturer. Each table shares the same design principles and proportions combined to achieve a seamless exploration of shape, scale, and narrative.
Obtained through a combination of natural materials and traditional/modern manufacturing techniques, this is a functional crafted piece perceptible in both design precision and organic composition. Resulting in a series that is a symbolic exploration of confinement and protection.
