Belle August - September 2024

For over four decades Hali Rugs have produced beautiful handcrafted artisan rugs for Australian homes. For the first time they have partnered with Smac Studio for the launch of Icons – a stunning collection of four designs in muted jewel tones. With award-winning Smac Studio’s sophisticated aesthetic at the forefront, Hali Rugs have harnessed their generations of experience to create an elevated rug collection that is luxurious, high quality and hard wearing for modern homes. All the rugs in the Icons range are crafted from pure New Zealand wool featuring blends of bamboo silk and Tencel ™ , which gives each piece a beautiful light-reflective and lustrous quality. For Shona McElroy from Smac Studio, the design process was organic and inspired by global influences and the Art Deco movement. “I…

EDITORIAL Editor-in-chief Tanya Buchanan Creative director Shayne Burton Managing editor Matilda Ringrose Senior copy editor Janice Hogg Chief copy editor, Homes Peter Griffiths Art production Matus Kundrat Stylist, Homes Sophie Wilson Contributing editors Steve Cordony (Style director-at-large), Karen McCartney (Architecture), Kirstie Clements (Luxe Files) Judy Pascoe (Library), Carli Philips (Melbourne), Harry Roberts (Art), Jean Wright (Design) EDITORIAL OFFICE GPO Box 4088, Sydney, NSW 1028 Tel (02) 9282 8456, email: belle@aremedia.com.au CONTRIBUTORS Rory Allen, Anthony Basheer, Tom Blachford, Alexandra English, Sean Fennessy, Nick Glimenakis, Maree Homer, Stephan Julliard, Alana Landsberry, Rhiannon Lidbury, Chris Pearson, Romello Pereira, Ian Phillips, Prue Ruscoe, Anson Smart, Kristina Soljo, Fiona Susanto, Alicia Taylor, Rhiannon Taylor, Pablo Veiga, Dave Wheeler ADVERTISING Commercial manager, Homes Michelle O’Hanlon Brand executive Claire Ellis, (02) 9282 8038 Advertising production manager Kate…

I love new school glamour in decorating, and Tamsin Johnson, the designer of our cover house, is the leading lady of this particular brand of nonchalant European-infused contemporary chic. It is nostalgic yet lives for today and gracefully enhances homes on the best streets in Australia. Plus, it is handsome and comfortable to live with, p106. Our incredible Australian design scene is all-pervasive. In boutiques, workspaces, brands, and, of course, homes, our national design passion is ever-present. Take a look at the creative engine room of the National Art School in Sydney’s Darlinghurst, p40, and the arty workspace of artist Eliza Gosse and architect Benjamin Jay Shand, p42. Art advisor and aficionado Kym Elphinstone lives and breathes art and design, and her elegant, reimagined terrace is as much a gallery…

LONDON ARCHITECTU RE practice Carmody Groarke have no doubt that their level of inventiveness and values were determined by the tough times generated by the 2008 GFC. “We were starting our practice and suddenly had no work and no clients, so we had to patch together a series of opportunities. We were never complacent about where they came from,” says director Andy Groarke. To that point their career trajectories had been relatively seamless. Australian Kevin Carmody, his fellow director, went to university in Canberra followed by a post-graduate degree at Melbourne’s RMIT while Andy Groarke, encouraged by his textile designer father pursued architecture at Sheffield University. They met, and gelled, at David Chipperfield’s London practice where collaborative competition entries tested out ideas and cemented their working relationship. Winning the prestigious…

IN HIS DELIGHTFULLY EXP RESSIVE and idiosyncratic paintings of streetscapes, clothing and interiors, there is a sense that artist Brenton Drechsler is always hiding in plain sight. Appearing in multiple guises across his work and momentarily rupturing its loosely figurative mode with a flourish of optically charged abstraction, the stripes that recur in his scenes are at once a painterly signature and something he likens to a second self. “The stripes emerged as a sort of non-human alter-ego,” he says of these graphic interventions, which might variously be emblazoned across an entire building facade or tucked discreetly on the sole of a shoe, a coat lining or a staircase riser. “The recurring motif stands in for my physical self, taking up space in each composition, attracting attention and being bold,…

VICTORIA WOMEN TALKING ‘(SC)OOT(ER)ING around’ places work by jeweller/artist Su san Cohn in dialogue with a sound and neon installation by Eugenia Raskopoulos. “This is a collaboration ... about shared concerns ... being older women artists and the politics of women’s voices,” says Cohn, whose Cosmetic Manipulations (right) reflects her interest in jewellery as body adornment and social tool. Aug 3–Sept 7. twma.com.au SINGAPORE + SYDNEY MATERIALISM Channelling paint’s molten physicality, Kanchana Gupta sculpts thick, aggregate surfaces in 3D relief with processes like burning, heating and tearing, embedding the resulting works with her meditations on urban life and identity under global pressures. A preview of her series ‘Open and Close’ (left) launched Sullivan+Strumpf’s new Singapore Studio ahead of its Sydney debut. Aug 15–Sept 7. sullivanstrumpf.com CANBERRA ALONG THE LINE ‘Anni…