Dean Toepfer: Death and Life – Solo Exhibition Repurposing Discarded Parachutes

Useful Objects welcomes Dean to Melbourne for his first solo exhibition, Dean Toepfer: Death and Life, and the launch of a new range of objects, lighting, and mirrors, created using reclaimed synthetic silk parachutes. Dean Toepfer is an Australian designer based in Adelaide, known for his evocative approach to design.

Inspired by this potent textile – once arresting the fall of a person plummeting to earth, and now a waste product – the exhibition reflects his commitment to exploring the life cycles of materials and his belief in their capacity for renewal and reinvention. Through a meticulous journey of design and craft, Dean breathes new life into this discarded fabric, creating luminous sculptural forms that seamlessly merge functionality with poetic resonance.

The resulting objects are both collectible art and functional design pieces, intended for homes or commercial environments. They are colourful pieces to live with, while inviting reflection on the role their material has played in the lives of others.

Parachute silk, with its history of bearing lives and ensuring safety, embodies a compelling narrative of strength and impermanence. Once vital, the material eventually expires, becoming unfit for its original purpose.

“By reclaiming and transforming the silk, I am drawing parallels between the life cycle of materials and the human experience of endings and beginnings,” says Dean Toepfer.

“The discarded fabric is reborn, offering a visual meditation on metamorphosis, resilience, and renewal.”

For Toepfer, this exhibition is more than material exploration; it represents a deeply introspective journey. It reflects his evolving perspective on life’s transitions, both personal and universal. The death of loved ones, the end of relationships, and the fading of ideas or dreams can leave behind profound loss and uncertainty. Yet, as Toepfer suggests, these endings often serve as catalysts for growth and reinvention. Through Death and Life, Dean Toepfer crafts an exhibition and a poignant reminder of the power of change, the inevitability of cycles, and the quiet beauty of rebirth.

Dean Toepfer: Death and Life

• Useful Objects, 47 Easey St, Collingwood
• Wednesday to Saturday, 12–5pm
• 20 February to 05 April 2025
• Reception event: Wednesday 19 February, 6–8pm

About Dean Toepfer

Dean Toepfer is an Adelaide-based designer whose approach is characterised by the detail and functionality of his lighting, furniture, and objects, which he retains while exploring the interplay of material, form, and colour. It is rooted in self-directed experimentation of production methods within an interdisciplinary studio.

Toepfer’s commitment to the design community, and interest in creative collaboration, led him to co-found Mixed Goods Studios. The complex is a vast multidisciplinary shared studio and fabrication space in Kilkenny, Adelaide, on Kaurna Country, from where he works.

Infusing life into the inanimate, Toepfer designs with an open-ended approach to making, marrying functionality with aesthetic allure. Through an explorative process, he pushes the limits of processes and tools to realise pieces that appear effortless and fully formed.

About Useful Objects

Useful Objects is a new gallery specialising in collectible design, underpinned by a designer partnership model. Addressing a gap in the Australian context, the gallery offers the opportunity to learn about collectible design and purchase or commission work. Useful Objects supports designer-makers who tell compelling stories of our time, through objects that challenge the norms of function and materials in sophisticated and unexpected ways.

More information: usefulobjects.com.au