Solo Exhibition at Watch this Space, NT
Then & Now: Exhibition: 2005

Exhibited 100 pieces of new and existing work; from jewellery to furniture to conceptual pieces and lighting.

An article from the Alice News; November 23rd, 2005

RICH IN IDEAS AND INVENTION. Review by KIERAN FINNANE.
For invention and the sheer range of ideas it would be hard to beat the design exhibition, Solid Speech, by Elliat Rich, showing at Watch This Space.
It combines work undertaken for her design degree, from the College of Fine Arts, University of NSW, with new work developed in her spare time in Alice Springs where Rich is employed by the Centre for Appropriate Technology.
Her creations can't be taken in at a glance. The retro lamps are revealed to be an exercise in flattening out what you expect to be a 3D form. Even the light switch is flat.
The ultra-modern jewellery pieces are the ground for cultural reflection. For example, the Knots series promotes the preservation of the art of knot-tying, elaborated by sailors but on the wane since the rise of their literacy during the 1800s. Rich has incorporated in the pieces a diagrammatic language she developed that explains how to tie the knots.
There's not room to describe here the more complex pieces Rich developed during her studies and which led to her being awarded the university medal. But they share with the more recent work ingenuity, excellence of execution, warmth and humour as well as a great sense of engagement with the ways people live, their roots in the past, the changes wrought over time, the future possibilities.
Shows til this Sunday.

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