Criteria Collection Presents Broached Monsters by Trent Jansen

Award-winning Sydney designer Trent Jansen has launched his latest series of works through Melbourne design centre, Broached Commissions.

Anyone familiar with Jansen’s work expects each new collection to deliver highly refined products, steeped in history and created using sustainable technologies and materials. Jansen is also well-known for collaborating with Australian master craftsmen, including experts in metal smithing, woodworking, glassblowing, and leather working.

Broached Monsters, a tribute to Australia’s rich Indigenous and non-Indigenous mythologies, continues Jansen’s dedication to form, function, sustainability, and the power of story telling.

Broached Monsters consists of furniture and lighting designs inspired by mythical characters that populated Aboriginal and Colonial folklore during the years of colonialisation, including the yahoo (a terrifying creature with long talons and a bent back, usually associated with storms) and the Hairy Wild Man from Botany Bay (a wild man or savage ranging in height from 6-16 feet and covered in coarse hair at least two inches long).

The Hairy Wild Man from Botany Bay Chandelier, constructed with a hand blown core and fixed with 5000 hand cut bristles, was created in collaboration with master craftsmen Ben Edlos and Jeremy Lepisto.

The Hairy Wild Man from Botany Bay Lounge, Chaise Lounge, and Bowl were made by cutting and adhering Icelandic sheep skin and New Zealand leather to body-hugging American Walnut vessels.

The Pankalangu Collection, which contains a wardrobe, arm chair, side table and bowl, references to the merging of mythical creatures in the stories of early settlers and those of local Aboriginal peoples. Made with layers of wooden scales and wallaby pelts, this series utilised the skills of master craftsmen Adam Price and Luke Coleman.

Broached Monsters the Exhibition

17 February – 18 March

Floor Talk with Trent Jansen and Leo Weis from Broached Commissions

18 March 11am – 12pm

Location: Criteria Collection, 66 Gwynne Street, Cremorne, Victoria