Tactile Dialogues: Fragments of Matter
Presented by Ryan Fernandes & Made by Morgen
DETAILS
Free, booking required
Made by Morgen
57-59 Weston St, Brunswick VIC 3056, Australia
A fragment can be a physical piece of an object, a trace of something left behind, a half-remembered memory or a glimpse through a half-closed door. Sometimes detached or incomplete. Sometimes shifting.
Tactile Dialogues: Fragments of Matter invites audiences to experience fragmentation as both material and concept — a space where new forms, partial views and traces of thought become the starting point for dialogue, curiosity and reflection.
Building on the warm reception of Tactile Dialogues 2025, which centred on the handcrafted and the power of physical objects to foster moments of human connection, and presented by Made by Morgen and curated by Ryan Fernandes, this year’s iteration invites audiences to engage with fragments as frameworks for exchange. Crafted objects, bioplastics, ceramics, glass and tactile materials become conduits for dialogue between matter, maker and participant.
The exhibition explores the alchemy that only comes from a maker’s hand: shaping with precision, while allowing space for play, imperfection and evolution.
Fragmentation here is not absence, but possibility – an invitation to consider process, temporality and transformation.
Collaborators and Material Voices:
Made by Morgen anchors the installation with crafted timber forms, offering structure and stillness amid the ephemeral. Their work highlights the dialogue between permanence and impermanence, revealing the quiet beauty and enduring integrity of timber.
Other Matter presents the first furniture pieces produced by the studio and using its patented material system, originally developed for architectural surfaces. The system received Dezeen’s 2025 Surface Design of the Year award. The seating pieces incorporate a dense, leather-like surface created through Other Matter’s closed-loop recycling process, where offcuts and returned signage are reprocessed into a durable leather-like material. Developed in collaboration with Made by Morgen, the pieces demonstrate how circular, non-petrochemical material systems can extend into furniture design.
Jon Goulder pushes boundaries with a chair that balances strength and subtle tactility, with moulded leather that develops a rich patina over time, speaking to context, use and lived history.
V.BROKKR (Ned Vernon) infuses the exhibition with architectural elegance and symbolic depth, presenting objects that shape and elevate everyday rituals.
Sarah Nedovic contributes ceramic tactile forms that evoke memory and invite pause, pieces that feel excavated, half-formed or mid-evolution.
Billy Crellin explores glass as sculptural fragment, transforming raw earthly material into objects of utility and pleasure.
Ryan L. Foote rethinks the physical and ephemeral experience of materials, expressed through tableware, conceptualising new forms to create a dining experience that emphasises texture and taste.
Jordan Fleming brings idiosyncratic, experimental sculptural works that convey presence and quiet, building a responsive energy within the space.
Opening Night Experience:
On opening night, guests are invited into a curated immersive experience that extends the tactile dialogue into taste and scent. Fragments of flavour and aroma unfold alongside the material works, expanding the sensory field.
Visitors move through a constellation of tactile encounters: bioplastics that curl and shift, timber forms that offer calm, ceramic fragments that invite curiosity, glass that captures and refracts light, and edible elements that dissolve or transform with touch.
The installation encourages mindful, embodied engagement, asking audiences to listen, feel and observe. Through a choreography of touch, trace and transformation, Tactile Dialogues: Fragments of Matter investigates material temporality and proposes design as a living, unfinished practice.
On Saturday 16 May, a panel discussion will be hosted with design journalist Aleesha Callahan on ‘About Futures’, exploring the exhibition, the makers and the impact of these materials on circular design and construction, and the role of collectible design in shaping collective wellbeing.
Participants
Jessie French
Jessie French is an artist and material researcher and the founding director of Other Matter, a studio developing regenerative material systems for architecture, retail and exhibition environments. Her practice investigates the environmental consequences of petrochemical plastics and develops non-petrochemical alternatives through material experimentation.
Working across art, design and scientific collaboration, through Other Matter, French has developed a series of material systems including architectural surfaces, interchangeable films and sheet materials produced from recovered studio waste. The work is being scaled in collaboration with CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency.
Her projects have received international recognition including Dezeen Awards, Frame Awards, Design Anthology Awards, the Good Design Awards and the INDE Awards. In 2024 she was the inaugural Designer-in-Residence at Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum.
@frenchjessie @other_matter
Jon Goulder
Jon Goulder is a fourth-generation furniture maker, he left his family business to study furniture design and fine woodworking at Canberra School of Art under the direction of the late George Ingham.
After leaving Canberra School of Art he established his design consultancy – Jon Goulder Designer Maker. His work has featured in a number of exhibitions and publications around the world. Jon has won several design prizes and his work is held in permanent collections by most State and National Museums and Art Galleries including the National Gallery of Australia. Defined by a balance between craft and design, Goulder’s work is distinguished by his refined processes in leather, textiles and wood. Careful attention to proportion, detail and line results in pieces that feel both timeless and contemporary.
@jongoulder
Sarah Nedovic
Sarah Nedovic, a Melbourne-based artist, forges unions between materials, light, form and innovation to elicit outcomes that are ever-evolving, constantly shifting to make space for new influences. Having established herself as a ceramic artist, producing works held in collections within Australia and abroad, Sarah’s work has begun to evolve into other materials while remaining anchored by a strong cross-disciplinary spirit that has come to define her. Through a mediation between intuition, research and the employment of both traditional techniques and investigative discovery.
@sarah_nedovic
Ned Vernon
Trained as a Silversmith and worked under Australian and German masters Ned Vernon looks through a different lens of architectural hardware. Taking a considered approach of new and traditional techniques, that looks beyond commercial considerations of mass production. With a veneration of noble materials and a desire to produce lasting objects that become a meaningful part of someone's home, and hopefully last through the generations. With the time spent in Germany and other European capitals Ned noticed doors and the hardware were carefully crafted objects that referenced the architecture and the time period. Different cultural rituals and mythical symbolism of the door, such as protection, transience, and the family unit is used as inspiration along with design movements of Brutalism and Italian mid-century design. Using traditional silversmithing techniques and hollowware construction techniques V.Brokkr produces limited editions and has a constantly evolving products line.
@v.brokkr
Billy Crellin
Driven by patient devotion to material ecology, Billy Crellin’s practice occupies a new plane built upon histories of glass making, studio crafts and industrialisation. Crellin’s sculptural works transform raw earthly commodities into consumer objects, following a linear anthropology that ultimately returns them to natural processes.
Crellin established the Melbourne/Naarm glassblowing studio Dokola focused on transforming historical and provocative design elements into modern, functional glass objects. The studio embraces the cyclical nature of design, leveraging concepts like re-melting and revival to create unique, contemporary products. Crellin’s works are found in the collection of the city of Lommel, and he has held residencies at the Glazenhuis in Belgium.
@studiodokolaglass
Jordan Fleming
Jordan Fleming is an Australian designer working across furniture, lighting, and sculptural objects. With a background in cabinetmaking and interior design, she founded her eponymous practice in 2018, creating work that balances material sensitivity with a strong sense of presence. Her practice is process-led and materially responsive, allowing the inherent qualities of her chosen mediums to guide each design. Fleming’s work navigates the space between utility and ornament, transforming everyday objects into sculptural encounters. A sustained interest in fabrication, manufacturing, and the behaviour of materials informs her approach, resulting in pieces that are precise, tactically considered, and quietly expressive. Each object is designed to engage with its environment and the people who use it, where function and character are held in equal measure, and subtle gestures of form invite interaction and reflection. In addition to her independent practice, she designs products for brands including Objects for Thought and New Volumes, translating sculptural thinking into refined, manufacturable design.
@_jordanfleming
Nick McDonald
Nick McDonald is the founder and director of Melbourne-based furniture studio Made By Morgen. Working from his Brunswick workshop, he leads both the design direction and hands-on production of the studio’s timber pieces, operating at the intersection of craft and contemporary design. With a background in fine furniture making, McDonald approaches each work as a considered spatial element. Proportion, junctions and structural clarity guide the design process, while materiality remains central. Timber is selected for its character and integrity, with forms reduced to their essential lines. The resulting pieces feel grounded and purposeful, designed not simply to occupy a room but to shape how it is experienced.
@madebymorgen
Ryan Fernandes
Ryan Fernandes is a Melbourne-based designer working across interiors, furniture, art and styling with architects, designers and brands in Australia and internationally. His practice is known for a thoughtful, narrative-driven approach that brings together spatial design, art and material exploration. Grounded in strong design principles and informed by heritage, cultural storytelling, colour and craft, Fernandes creates environments that balance emotional resonance with clarity and restraint. Alongside his design practice, he curates exhibitions that explore the relationship between materiality, culture and contemporary living. His work has been featured in Australian and international design publications.
@ryanfernandesdesign
Aleesha Callahan
Aleesha Callahan is the founder and editor of About Futures, an online publication exploring how sustainable and material innovation can respond meaningfully to climate change and ecological challenges. With more than a decade of experience in design media, including as the former editor of Habitus magazine, Aleesha writes for leading publications and works with selective clients on brand strategy, marketing and storytelling.
@aleeshacallahan @about_futures__
Ryan L. Foote
Ryan L. Foote is a multi-disciplinary artist based between Melbourne and Hong Kong, known for his multi-sensory installations and sculptures. He has exhibited in prominent venues like the National Gallery of Victoria and Federation Square. Foote holds a BA in Fine Arts from Melbourne University Victorian College of the Arts, majoring in Sculpture and Spatial Practice. His current practice focuses on delivering unique and contemporary ceramic flatware, interior design objects, and event-based designs.
@rlfootedesignstudio
Emma Davies
Emma Davies satisfies her curiosity by working with contemporary materials and using unconventional methods to challenge the possibilities of each creation. By removing materials from common functionality such as packaging and being able to transform what is intrinsically ugly into something beautiful.