Trent Jansen: Two Decades of Design Anthropology
Presented by Useful Objects
DETAILS
Free, no booking required
Useful Objects
47 Easey Street, Collingwood VIC, Australia
DATES
Thu 15 May 12 – 5pm
Fri 16 May 12 – 5pm
Sat 17 May 12 – 5pm
Wed 21 May 12 – 5pm
Thu 22 May 12 – 5pm
Fri 23 May 12 – 5pm
Sat 24 May 12 – 5pm
This survey exhibition celebrates Dr Trent Jansen’s first twenty years of design practice highlighting his evolution as one of Australia’s most innovative object designers. Through his distinctive approach of design anthropology, Jansen examines the past and reimagines a contemporary Australian identity. Grounded in Material Culture Theory, this methodology blends research, storytelling, and co-creation to produce artefacts that embody cultural values, ideas, and histories.
The exhibition follows Jansen’s journey from his early works, transforming road signs into stools, to groundbreaking collaborations with Indigenous Australian artists and designers, including Vicki West, Johnny Nargoodah, Errol Evans, and Tanya Singer. More than collaboration, Jansen builds lasting relationships that extend beyond the final product, ensuring that the voices and stories of those he works with continue to shape narratives of Country, culture, and identity. These partnerships have produced objects that honour marginal histories and cultural narratives, telling relational stories that offer a new foundation for Australia identity.
Participants
Trent Jansen
Trent Jansen is a designer based in Thirroul, Australia, and Lecturer at the University of New South Wales Art & Design, Sydney Australia. Jansen developed Design Anthropology as a method to embody important cultural narratives in three-dimensional forms, so that these objects might become repositories for the dissemination of significant, but often marginal stories. Jansen’s work echoes a dedication to the principals of Designing with Country, through ongoing collaborative relationships with Dharug artist and designer Bernadette Hardy, Nyikana artist and designer Johnny Nargoodah, Pitjantjara and Yankunytjatjara artist and designer Tanya Singer, and Djabugay and Western Yalanji artist and designer Errol Evans. These collaborations realise meaningful objects that share stories of cultural heritage, navigating sensitive, marginal, and often multi-storied narratives. Jansen and his collaborators have developed limited edition, one-off and site-specific works for clients including the Molonglo Group, Charter Hall and Mirvac, and have works acquired as part of the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Victoria.