Fiona Abicare: Nuts And Berries

Nuts And Berries is a major new body of work by Fiona Abicare comprising table, tableware, sculpture and a bespoke cotton robe. The collection design celebrates its namesake Nuts and Berries style (the Sydney School), a loosely connected group of architects renowned for their regional approach to design and construction in Australia from the 1950s through to the early 1970s. With an emphasis on landscape and the built connection to site, the principal design methodology connecting the group was an emphasis on, and appreciation for the natural qualities of raw material. Materials were often locally sourced products and, by preferencing minimal finishing, the style might be seen as humanistic in approach.

Abicare’s made to order collection of objects and garments explores art and design trajectories to rethink the role of utilitarian domestic forms and the decorative. Forms such as flatware, napkin cuff, share plate, bowl and boat dish are produced in stoneware and glassware. Intricate brass and silver miniature relief embellishments reconfigure a historical dessert M’hanncha (snake cake) realised by renowned chef Tom Levick. These components are further presented within the context of Abicare’s Serpentine ‘column’ sculptures and a Serpentine twist table produced in collaboration with celebrated furniture maker Christian Cole. Nuts And Berries considers the legacy of Modernism in relation to the style, and how these common domestic objects might engage the body and desire, and how they speak to the material.