HUON PINE LIDDED BOX
In the collection of The Museum and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory, Darwin, NT
Lueckenhausens earlier studio furniture works grew out of a comprehensive study of seed pods, and other aspects of the regenerative parts of flora and evolved into a variety of container-based forms bowls, boxes, trinket boxes, etc. These forms also evolved further through continual stylisation into a series of functional surfaces, small tables, benches, lecterns and music stands. A series of waist-high ceremonial bowls, most often made during residencies at universities and colleges extended this theme. Still later, they evolved into larger tables and full dining settings in which the chairs and tables present as a sort of family group. The Jacaranda seedpod, the lip-like opening of which evolved through a continual series of mutations into one of Lueckenhausen's key signature marks is often seen as a visual resolution point or as a functional handle. The flared sides of the pod led to a series of works with flared edges and eventually, as the works crossed from flora to fauna references, into wings and related elements that have developed into a sort of mythological iconography. The lip form continued to evolve into an even more mannered zoomorphic reference. Whether plant or animal-like, or a combination of both, they work within a narrative that ranges from the semi-heroic to the humorous, and even to a sort of self-deprecating mockery. The imagery ranges from elegance and gracefulness, to that of minor characters acting out a story in a kind of domestic diorama. Tables, and chairs in particular, referenced the proportions suggested in the Dreyfus charts for designing to suit human proportions, and no matter how decorative or theatrical the forms became, they were always designed in appropriately ergonomic proportions.
