Tribal Chic
The Age
Wednesday January 21, 2004
Whether authentic or reinterpreted by Western designers, ethnic and tribal objects are increasingly being used to inject earthy style and warmth into modern interiors.
Janet de Silva visits the stores with an eye to this trend ...
From the velvety patina of African teak to the raw beauty of recycled metalware, a visit to the recently opened Kumusha Gallery on Hawthorn's busy Burwood Road is typically
a hands-on experience.
"People come in here and just love to run their fingers over everything," says owner Amanda Norman, who believes the tactile nature of many African objects is a key aspect of their appeal.
"African style has to do with natural materials that haven't been 'corrupted', genetically modified or artificially reproduced. Many of the homewares and woodcraft have a rich patina that begs to be touched," she says.
Amanda's love and appreciation of African handicrafts and furniture was honed during
a three-year stay in Zimbabwe, where she and her husband were involved in a tourist operation at Victoria Falls.
Returning to Australia last year, Amanda set up Kumusha (which is the Shona word for 'home') to showcase some of the best of African artistry and craftsmanship - much of it personally sourced by Amanda's business partner, Zimbabwean resident Nina Gibson.
This includes products made by craftspeople living in remote villages as well as young, urban-based artists.
The raw materials used in the products varies widely - from traditional terracotta to recycled telephone wire that is woven into baskets.
"We've tried to steer away from a cliched African look and mass-produced artefacts,"
Amanda says.
There is also an emphasis on sourcing goods that successfully combine traditional craftsmanship with contemporary styling. Such products include handmade leather goods; white, hand-embroidered bed and table linen using hand-picked Zimbabwean cotton; beaded, woven and hand-carved homewares as well as sculptural artworks.
The store also has a sizable range of furniture including bar stools made from recycled railway sleepers that have a rich, dark patina developed from their century or more of
sun-baked years on the savanna plains; and beds, tables and colonial-style chairs made from African teak, which is very similar, both in quality and appearance, to Australian hardwoods.
• Kumusha Gallery African Home is at 644 Burwood Road, Hawthorn. Telephone 9882 2890. The store has a sale on throughout January.
Wild things
A frequent visitor to Asia since the mid-Eighties, Felicity Rulikowski has long been wild about the raw, understated beauty of tribal and ethnic handicrafts.
But it wasn't until she spent several months in the early 2000s visiting remote villages in Indonesia that the former fashion designer and stylist came up with the idea for her first retail venture - Safari - a store that aims to present the best of tribal and local crafts - much of it designed with a modern sensibility.
The store's much-photographed signature piece - an hourglass-shaped, woven stool - is the result of collaboration between Felicity and traditional vine weavers living in a walled village in north-east Bali. Each stool takes four to eight weeks to weave and on completion is cured in a smokehouse for two weeks.
Other pieces that Felicity has sourced by "venturing off the main drag" include carved wooden panels from East Timor, exquisitely beaded boxes from Sumatra and rich yellow, orchid-stemmed bags from West Papua.
"Each community from Indonesia and East Timor has its own specific craft that has been developed over many years using the regions' unique and naturally available materials," she says. "The artisans become highly skilled in their specialised area."
Safari also stocks unusual pieces from other parts of Asia, Africa and Europe, as well as from Australian artisans.
• Safari is at 579 High Street, Prahran East. Telephone 9510 4500.
Down-to-earth
Injecting a bit of earthy style into suburban Camberwell is the newly opened Urban Bazaar - a retail store offering a small but eclectic mix of modern, tribal and ethnic homewares, in addition to a boutique range of clothing and bath products.
Owner Deborah Baker says she is drawn to homewares that have an "earthy, organic feel" from countries such as South America, North Africa and the Philippines.
Such products include alpaca travel rugs, Brazilian cow-hide ottomans and foot seats, a children's range of beanies from Peru, and water hyacinth vases.
But there is also an interesting selection of decorative and sculptural products by Australian artists, many of them producing work that has a raw tribal feel.
"I love to hit the road and explore the work of local artists in regional areas," says Deborah, who stocks the work of several artists based near Daylesford in Victoria and Eumundi in Queensland.
This includes jewellery fashioned from the skin of 'road-kill' animals and a range of sea-worn glass vases and flotsam and jetsam-type mobiles featuring driftwood and other 'found' objects.
• Urban Bazaar is at 501 Riversdale Road, Camberwell. Telephone 0412 555 856.
© 2004 The Age
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