Useful Objects
01.08.2024 – 14.09.2024

Marlo Lyda returns to Melbourne with her first solo exhibition at Useful Objects, bringing together recent bodies of work with a new collaboration with Melbourne’s Spacecraft.

Lyda’s Turning (Camphor) is a collection of turned timber objects, meticulously crafted from Camphor Laurel timber sourced from forest rehabilitation efforts in the Northern Rivers Region of NSW. Through a process of woodturning, a distinctive pattern emerges, further enhanced by charring the wood to blacken it and lacquer applied to seal it, thereby highlighting the unique beauty of the wood.

In many East Asian countries, Camphor Laurel intertwines with tales of myth and medicine, its timber transformed into objects of beauty. Yet, along the eastern coast of Australia it is considered an invasive weed species: synonymous with the devastation of native landscapes, its timber is often overlooked, poisoned or burnt where it stands. However, beneath its foliage lies a shaded opportunity — a resource capable of supporting native rehabilitation and sustainable forestry through mindful harvest.

Especially for this exhibition, the collection is complemented with a new collaboration with Stewart Russell of Spacecraft, which uses the charcoal produced from Camphor Laurel as a pigment in the creation of a range of textile pieces.

Marlo Lyda’s Remnants tables are each unique, with the designer elevating and celebrating the reclaimed stone through a careful repositioning. Designing each base around the unique form of the found shards, the tables emerge around the centrepiece of the stone. The sheer surface of the tabletop is contrasted with the delicate construction of the base and its copper detail. The exhibition includes a new Remnants console, the largest work in the collection to date. 

Extending the approach taken with Remnants, Lyda’s Fragment Wall Light is meticulously crafted to harmonise with the unique shape of each recovered piece of onyx. The signature detailing, characterised by asymmetric scaffolding and copper-bound cross sections, remains a cornerstone of Lyda’s aesthetic. These elements are celebrated as part of the enduring character that Lyda perceives to be embedded within the stones she passionately collects, reimagines, and crafts.

ABOUT MARLO LYDA

Marlo Lyda creates striking works in acts of reconstitution, recontextualisation and reevaluation. Her approach means she often works with materials in their second iteration of objecthood, that have been fashioned into a previous form.

Lyda’s works resist categorisation as being solely about sustainability; rather her methodology creates new functional pieces with their own agency to tell stories, a process she describes simply as ‘searching for imaginative and intentional ways to work with materials that are already in existence’.

Lyda’s Turning (Camphor) collection was recently highlighted in Stephen Todd’s list of the top 2024 Australian designs in Australian Financial Review Magazine.