Melbourne Design week: Pas de Deux (Step of Two): Escultura X Bettina Willner, Claudia Terstappen, and Christopher Jewitt.
Developed for Melbourne Design Week, this collaboration between Lennox St. Gallery and ESCULTURA challenges the traditional "white cube" convention where the pedestal is treated as a neutral, invisible utility. Instead, this exhibition positions the plinth as an active sculptural participant, engaged in a formal choreography with the ceramic medium.
Pas de Deux (Step of Two) investigates the symbiotic relationship between the sculptural object and its architectural foundation. Developed for Melbourne Design Week, this collaboration between Lennox St. Gallery and ESCULTURA challenges the traditional "white cube" convention where the pedestal is treated as a neutral, invisible utility. Instead, this exhibition positions the plinth as an active sculptural participant, engaged in a formal choreography with the ceramic medium.
The exhibition features the distinct practices of Bettina Willner, Claudia Terstappen, and Christopher Jewitt. While each artist maintains a unique vernacular-ranging from Willner's organic, crustaceous surfaces to Terstappen's exploration of monumental landscape and Jewitt's gestural abstraction-they are united by a common structural interlocutor. ESCULTURA's bespoke plinths are not merely containers for these works; they are material responses. By utilizing specialized finishes and precision geometries, the supports mirror, contrast, and extend the physical logic of the ceramics they uphold.
The concept of the Pas de Deux serves as a metaphor for this mutual dependency. In classical ballet, the partner dance relies on the precarious balance of weight and counterweight. Similarly, this exhibition highlights how design and fine art converge to create a unified aesthetic experience. By elevating the pedestal to a site of artistic inquiry, Pas de Deux invites viewers to reconsider the hierarchy of display and the integrated nature of contemporary craftsmanship.