Differing Perspectives

DIFFERING PERSPECTIVES
CALUM HURLEY | JORDAN LEEFLANG
Craft ACT Craft + Design Centre

Craft ACT: Craft + Design Centre is supported by the ACT
Government, the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy – an initiative
of the Australian State and Territory Governments, and the
Australia Council for the Arts – the Australian Government’s arts
funding and advisory body.
CRAFT ACT CRAFT + DESIGN CENTRE
Tues–Fri 10am–5pm
Saturdays 12–4pm
Level 1, North Building, 180 London Circuit,
Canberra ACT Australia
+61 2 6262 9333
www.craftact.org.au
Cover: #9 Hush Side Table, 2020 (detail)
Photo: courtesy of the artist
Next: Previous: Key Inspiration Photograph #1
Photo: Calum Hurley

DIFFERING PERSPECTIVES
CALUM HURLEY | JORDAN LEEFLANG
Craft ACT Craft + Design Centre
2 JULY - 22 AUGUST 2020
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Differing Perspectives
Exhibition statement
Responding to photographs of
metropolitan Japan, Calum Hurley and
Jordan Leeflang have created sculptural
objects and pieces of furniture inspired
by six different photographs. Each image
- captured by Hurley in 2017 - was chosen
to show the country’s unique architectural
forms and urban landscape. The images
display a strong representation of national
design identity that both artists have
experienced at different stages of their
lives. With differing design outcomes
emerging from a singular source,
audiences are invited to trace the stylistic
patterns and individual touches that
emerge from each artist. The presentation
of the original source image along with
the resulting forms shall prompt viewers
to personally engage with the work and
conceptualise their own interpretations.
Hurley’s practice gravitates towards
reflectivity and light play. Leeflang’s
focuses on proportion, colour and shape.
The concept of this collaborative show
aims to extend the artist’s creative
capabilities by pushing them to question
their processes, artistic practices,
and aesthetic tendencies. This was
an opportunity to design without the
constraints of market viability and social
expectation, and showcase the more
experimental elements of their practices.
Coming from similar educational and
training backgrounds in the fields of
Interior Architecture & Furniture Design;
Hurley and Leeflang were curious about
exploring the differences that emerge in
their ways of thinking and problem solving.
Their design processes naturally focus on
function and human interaction.
Previous: Jordan Leeflang, #1 Cab Chair, 2020
Black wood, felt upholstery
Photo: courtesy of the artist
Opposite: Calum Hurley, #1 Bench/es, 2020
Powder-coated steel, American White Ash
Photo: courtesy of the artist
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Exhibition essay
Catalogue essay: Guy Keulemans + Kyoko Hashimoto
By the time we were invited to write
this essay for Calum Hurley and Jordan
Leeflang’s exhibition at Craft ACT, the
impact of COVID-19 on the world was
emerging. What has eventuated – the
closing of borders, supply chains paranoia
and a surge in nationalistic, often
hostile rhetoric between East and West
– clouds the kinds of cultural engagement
that is at the heart of this timely
exhibition. Its incarnation hinges on a series
of photographs taken in 2017 during
a trip to Japan, a physical, real-world encounter
with a material culture. If COVID
came 3 years early, this exhibition would
not have been possible.
Or would it?
Hurley’s images show an interest in
streetscapes and buildings that would
be typically ignored by local Japanese,
but to Hurley’s foreign eyes are full of
unusual or unexpected design choices,
styling and visual expressions. Perhaps
driven by the knowledge that Japan’s
more famous architecture and historical
icons are well photographed already,
Hurley points his lens at the everyday.
But this choice is not the heart of the
project. Similar photographs are now
uploaded, in the millions and billions, to
the archives of Google Street view, Flickr
and numerous other internet databases.
Digital street views are approaching a
seamless virtual experience. The world
is being mapped in 2D, and in 3D as well.
Photogrammetry, that World War Two
modelling technology developed so nations
could bomb each other, now allows
architects and archaeologists to work
remotely. None of this entirely replaces
the experience of the real, but it can simulate
it sufficiently, depending on expectations.
We argued this point amongst
ourselves: could Hurley and Leeflang
reproduce their work by trawling through
the online trove of algorithmically sorted
images of Japan? Could they replace
the affective experience of a subject
afforded by their framing of the lens?
Would they grok a cultural impression
of Japan without the things that escape
digital capture – smells, touches, emotions?
The reality is that if they wanted
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to continue the project today, at the time
of writing, on May 26th 2020 in the time
of COVID, they would have to try.
This hypothetical challenge is worth
reflection because it leads to something
more important, something that we think
is the heart of this exhibition: the translation
of information from one culture
and from one medium into another. This
is the transmutation of many distinct,
idiosyncratic, but mostly hidden design
choices from Japanese architecture and
urban design into Australian furniture
and homewares. At a time when nations
are locking up borders, airlines are going
bankrupt and international tourism barely
exists, it is more important than ever
to understand foreign cultures and work
towards global empathy, lest we regress
back to the xenophobia and intolerances
of past decades. The subtlety of Hurley
and Leeflang’s contribution, through
the medium of design, is an affective
contribution, priming the senses for the
new and unexpected in the aesthetic
dimension. The engagement with foreign
culture through design may not be as
overt as an overseas trip, but it’s a special
component of the interlocking and
interweaving mix of global society. Even
if the threat of COVID wanes, as we all
hope, we should nonetheless forestall a
post-COVID surge in international travel.
For the sake of the planet, we must consider
the heavy and potentially irreversible
impact of air transport, freight and
cargo emissions on climate change.
Our position on this points to the success
of Hurley and Leeflang in their future
as professional Australian furniture
designers. Currently, our local makers
barely compete with foreign imports.
Survival shouldn’t be so precarious. We
propose that cultural exchange and global
understanding is not dependent on
physical travel, but neither should it be
dependent on the international shipping
of goods. Vis a vis, lets invest, and take
pleasure, in a resurgence of local design
and craft. As Hurley and Leeflang prove
in their sensitive works, it is an industry
that creates objects that capture the
virtual, but which themselves cannot
be virtualised: behold, the locally made
chair, mirror and table!
Guy Keulemans + Kyoko Hashimoto
Designers, artists and researchers
Next: Screenshot of Tochomae Station in Tokyo
on Google Maps

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Calum Hurley
Artist statement
Having grown up between Australia,
Scotland, Ireland, then Australia again,
I have a keen awareness that objects
and furniture must intrinsically include
opportunity for disassembly, to be
multi-functional or space sensitive, or
be small or robust enough that you can
take them with you. Currently working
out of JamFactory’s Furniture Studio,
I produce objects for the home as well
as a range of exhibition works. With an
engrained interest in reflection, light play,
and the illusion of space, much of my work
involves reflective elements in one form or
another.
Biography
Calum Hurley is an Adelaide based
furniture and object designer. Currently
working out of JamFactory’s Furniture
Studio as part of the esteemed Associate
Training Program, Hurley produces
objects that are consciously spacesensitive
and visually distinct. He has been
a finalist in several high caliber emerging
design competitions across Australia
including Denfair’s FRONT | CENTRE and
WORKSHOPPED19 at Australian Design
Centre.
My workspace is currently stacked with all
things Jesmonite. I am looking to refine
my casting and moulding techniques
whilst gaining a broader understanding
of this adaptive materials potential
applications.
Previous: Key Inspiration Photograph #9
Photo: Calum Hurley
Calum Hurley, #9 Shrine005, 2020
Jesmonite, cast. Photo: courtesy of the artist

Jordan Leeflang
Artist statement
I make furniture and objects featuring
repetitive elements. I’m drawn to this
repetition, perhaps from my studies in
interior architecture, it’s both the visual
result and the process required to achieve
it that hook me. The repetitive elements
are often the details, rather than the whole
form. En masse, a sharp angle softens,
and the visual tension that this creates is
fascinating to me. I want people to look
closer, I want to invite curiosity, I believe
objects should have that power to draw
people in.
In my predominant medium of timber,
I use jigs and templates to create
repeatable elements. These smaller
objects form patterns through angles,
folds and joins.
Biography
Jordan Leeflang is an Adelaide based
designer whose multidisciplinary practice
includes furniture, object and sculpture.
While studying a Bachelor of Interior
Architecture at the University of South
Australia, Jordan took a furniture design
studio and found his niche. Following
graduation in 2016, he went on to
study Furniture Making at TafeSA, and
experimenting in his shed until being
accepted into the Associate Program at
JamFactory’s Furniture Studio in 2019.
Jordan has been involved in a number of
design competitions, winning the 2019
Workshopped Award for Design for his
Sunday Stool, and gaining an honourable
mention in the VIVID object category in
the same year for his Soft Spot Bowls. His
work has been exhibited in Adelaide Fringe
and Melbourne Design Week in 2020.
Jordan Leeflang, #9 Hush Side Table + Ceramic
Vessel, 2020, Powder-coated steel, fabricated by
Tom Golin. Hand-built ceramic vessel by Hannah
Vorrath-Pajak. Photo: courtesy of the artist
Next: Key Inspiration Photograph #3
Photo: Calum Hurley
Page 22-33: Calum Hurley, #3 Chair001 (Grey),
2020. Powder-coated steel, Jesmonite, Handspun
woolen upholstery. Photo: courtesy of the
aritst.

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List of works
1 Calum Hurley
#1 Bench/es, 2020
Powder-coated steel,
American White Ash
$1,720
2 Jordan Leeflang
#1 Cab Chair, 2020
Black wood, felt upholstery
$3,600
3 Calum Hurley
#3 Chair001 (Grey), 2020
Powder-coated steel,
Jesmonite, Hand-spun woolen
upholstery
$3,000
4 Jordan Leeflang
#3 Loft Chair, 2020
Walnut
$2800
5 Calum Hurley
#5 Fade Vessel, 2020
Blown glass. Blown by Hamish
Donaldson, assisted by Ayano
Yoshizumi
160 x 160 x 310 mm
$350
6 Calum Hurley
#5 Fade Vessel , 2020
Blown glass. Blown by Hamish
Donaldson, assisted by Ayano
Yoshizumi
160 x 160 x 190 mm
$300
7 Calum Hurley
#5 Fade Vessel , 2020
Blown glass. Blown by Hamish
Donaldson, assisted by Ayano
Yoshizumi
150 x 150 x 130 mm
$250
8 Jordan Leeflang
#5 Daily Tray, 2020
Sprayed MDF
490 x 195 x 30 mm
$210
9 Jordan Leeflang
#5 Daily Tray, 2020
Sprayed MDF (blue)
195 x 195 x 30 mm
$120
10 Jordan Leeflang
#5 Daily Tray, 2020
Sprayed MDF (cream)
195 x 195 x 30 mm
$120
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List of works
11 Calum Hurley
#7 Gradient Bud Vases , 2020
Jesmonite (silicone mould
cast), steel
$95 each, $2,375 set
16 Jordan Leeflang
#9 Hush Side Table, 2020
Powder-coated steel, fabricated
by Tom Golin
$1,200
12 Jordan Leeflang
#7 Peek Mirror, 2020
American White Oak, Mirror
$280
13 Calum Hurley
#8 Stack Side Table , 2020
Clear Acrylic. Reclaimed
Cardboard + Jesmonite
American White Ash
MDF + Mirrored Acrylic
$2,260
17 Jordan Leeflang
#9 Ceramic Vessel, 2020
Hand-built ceramic vessel by
Hannah Vorrath-Pajak
$450
18 Calum Hurley
Key Inspiration Photographs,
2017-20, Digital prints on
paper Initialled and signed
$125 each, $700 set
14 Jordan Leeflang
#8 Kilter Bench, 2020
American White Oak
$1,600
19 Calum Hurley
Differing Perspectives Zine,
2020, Digital prints on paper
$45 each
15 Calum Hurley
#9 Shrine005, 2020
Jesmonite, cast
$550
Page 24-25: Jordan Leeflang, #3 Loft Chair, 2020
Walnut. Photo: courtesy of the aritst.
Page 26-31: Differing Perspectives, 2020.
Photo: 5 Foot Photography.
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