ROHERYN 1
In the Collection of the Art Gallery of Queensland
Sidetable (Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane)
Queensland Siky Oak, Queensland Silver Ash
The Roheryn 1 and 2 series was first conceived for the project and exhibition Splitting Heads. Plimsoll Gallery, Centre for the Arts, Hobart. The brief involved the exploration of a design through two stages. Stage 1 was the fully realized studio furniture object and Stage 2 was to be a redevelopment/refinement that explored manufacturing efficiencies that could lead to a (at least) small production run. Lueckenhausens familiar iconography of mythical zoomorphology, wings, lip forms and graceful legs can be seen while at the same time, the next stage of his development of the narrative of interaction between organic (quasi-natural) and architectonic (manufactured) components is also evidenced. Here, the line between these two elements becomes less obvious and the imagery, potentially more bizarre. As Kevin Murray was later to write in an article about his Wunderkammer series: Slippage between human and animal is one of the key monstrosities
(K. Murray, The Cabinet of Helmut Lueckenhausen, Craft Victoria, 29, 1999, pp. 17-19.).
Lueckenhausen, nevertheless, always intended these works to speak of reconciliation and while recognizing the potential for monstrosity, insists on an image of benign fusion.
Stage 2 saw the removal of the doors on the tall cabinet and the replacement of the woodcrafted wing and leg forms with fabricated, glass-bead blasted aluminium plate.
