Sector: Arts and Culture

Art form or genre: Design

Country location: United Kingdom

Grantee: Mr Brodie Neill

Project Description

Brodie Neill is an Australian industrial designer based in London UK. Neill studied at the University of Tasmania before completing postgraduate studies at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2004. Neill will represent Australia at the inaugural London Design Biennale at Somerset House.

Neill will present Plastic Effects, an installation engaging with the environmental hazard of ocean plastic pollution, particularly alluding to an environmental dystopia where material and societal practices inherited from industrialisation are now remaking the world. Ocean plastic pollution is now ubiquitous along the Tasmanian and global coastlines.

With curatorial support provided by the National Gallery of Victoria, the Pavilion comprises two parts. The first is an immersive space where sound and image combine. Audiences encounter the magnificence of Tasmania's coastline, juxtaposed with the sobering reality of the plastic effect on the environment.

The second part premieres Neill's work Gyro created especially for the London Design Biennale. Neill has collaborated with scientists, engineers and organisations to collect and reconstitute small fragments of plastic washed-up on the shores of Tasmania and around the globe to produce a terrazzo-like composite. A contemporary rendition of a nineteenth century specimen table, Gyro substitutes examples of precious marble, timber and ivory for the plastic composite developed by Neill and his collaborators. In varying hues of blue the composite is inlaid in a kaleidoscopic diagram to depict the Earth's longitudinal and latitudinal lines.

Social media accounts: Twitter: @brodieneill, @londonbiennale, @AusHouseLondon; Instagram: @brodieneill, @london_design_biennale; Hashtags: #UtopiaByDesign, #brodieneill, #LDB16 #AustralianPavilion

Australian Cultural Diplomacy Grants Program grant offer: $41,245

Total project value: $41,245