Why Tall Poppy?

A conversation about conditions, making, and what it means to stay.

The ‘Tall Poppy’ title was never chosen so much as recognised. It surfaced in a conversation some years ago — about designers of an earlier generation and the pull they felt offshore, towards the ecologies that simply didn’t exist here in Australia yet. Milan, in particular. The artisans, the engineers, the precision mechanics who could make a wall-mounted light behave like architecture, or lend a furniture piece the movement of a fine instrument. For a young designer with serious ideas, staying had felt less like a choice than a limitation.

Something has changed. Not entirely. Not fast enough. But the direction is real, and this panel brings together people who are making it real.

Why Tall Poppy? is a conversation about conditions — what it takes to build a serious design practice in Australia, and what becomes possible when the support actually exists. The panellists speak from different vantage points: manufacturing, materials, interior design practice, and the studio floor. Together, they trace what has shifted, what the gaps still are, and what it looks like when a designer is taken seriously at home.

The discussion takes place inside the Tall Poppy exhibition, surrounded by the work of the fifteen practices gathered there — each, in its own way, evidence of what that support can produce.

Panelists
Michael Karakolis, Fibonacci — Tall Poppy Founding Partner
Gordon Tait, Made by Tait
Mardi Doherty, Studio Doherty
Jean-Pierre Biasol, Biasol Studio
Leisa Wharington, Glassblower and Co-Founder The Studio & Co.

Moderator
Tiffany Jade, curator of Tall Poppy.

The exhibition remains on view at Kelli Lundberg Art through 7 June 2026.