Little Wheels Go From Back To Front

Sydney Morning Herald

Thursday June 21, 2007

Genevieve Swart

A fold-up bike and new works to wear or admire are highlights of two exhibitions of design.

A bicycle that folds into a backpack is an ingenious solution to gaps in public transport. The Everglide bike, created by Sydney designer Frag Woodall, is made of carbon fibre, aluminium and nylon, has wheels about the size of saucers, weighs 7.5 kilograms and can be folded up in less than 30 seconds. "It's designed for inner-city commuters," says Woodall, 33. The prototype recently won the award for design for manufacture at Object Gallery's new design exhibition, which identifies Australia's most talented graduate designers.

Woodall, a graduate of the University of Technology, Sydney, is one of three prizewinners to watch in the show. Object also gives a prize for studio-based practice which was jointly won this year by Melbourne designer Kacey Smits, who makes brightly coloured polymer necklaces, and Gerringong glass artist Cobi Cockburn, whose sculptures take on feminine forms.

Woodall got the idea for a lightweight bicycle while he was doing a research thesis on urban mobility during his fourth year of industrial design at UTS. "I found there's a missing link, a gap in the movement hierarchy, which I coined 'the last mile'." This last mile, he says, is the first or last part of a journey - getting from home to the bus or from the train to work, for example - which, if it's more than a kilometre, will tempt people to jump into a car and drive.

The bike was inspired by cities that have strong bicycle cultures, such as Copenhagen and Tokyo. There are other folding bikes on the market but, Woodall says, they don't really deal with our environment or personal storage solutions. His backpack, with the bike inside, also has room for your belongings. "The beauty of this design is it has a holistic approach to storage and transport. In terms of functionality, it can be a backpack . . . then you can wheel it like airport luggage when the wheels collapse into the pack." When it unfolds into a bicycle, the pack clips on under the seat. The Everglide bike has attracted interest from the US and the Netherlands, he says, but there are no deals for production yet.

Despite being a new graduate, Woodall - who started out in furniture making and restoration - has already gained some recognition including winning the most promising new talent in the student category at the 2005 Bombay Sapphire Design Discovery Awards. His latest accolade is an important one, as students around the country dream of being one of 15 graduates selected to be in the annual new design exhibition at Sydney's Object Gallery and the Melbourne Museum.

"[The Object award] is a significant prize, in the sense of who is watching - the key industry people," Woodall says.

The three winners were announced last month. The judges included Anne Watson, curator of decorative arts and design at the Powerhouse Museum. A prizewinner from 2004, sustainable design specialist Trent Jansen, has laid out the exhibition re?using old plinths and supports from Object's storeroom. Other highlights on show include Kate Baker's wooden table - titled Fold - which is painted white and looks like a single plank folded by an origami artist. Owen Bawden's Fire Eye is an unmanned aircraft designed to do low-altitude video surveillance for the Rural Fire Service, and Jessica Dudgeon's Papillon de Nuit designs are ephemeral outfits of silk and leather inspired by the velvety wings of moths and metallic bodies of beetles.

As joint winners of Object's studio-based practice award, Smits and Cockburn share a $2000 prize for different but equally innovative works. The money isn't important to 22-year-old Smits - it's the kudos. "I get so excited," says the Melbourne designer, who did a bachelor of fine arts, majoring in metalwork and jewellery, at Monash University. "It's like a dream. I feel like I'm looking at someone else's life."

Smits experimented for months with materials and techniques to come up with her polymer necklaces, titled Serendipity. They are jewellery as well as works of art, she says. "Some people I have sold them to are wearing them but I wouldn't say you could wear them frequently. They are delicate. You could hang them on the wall." In the exhibition, the necklaces are a vibrant splash of colour.

Strung on nylon thread, her beads are a polymer - what type is the designer's secret. "It's a liquid when I use it and then it sets and goes clear. I lay out the thread on a piece of acetate, then I get the liquid, do the droplets. It sets overnight . . . and you can make it into any shape you want."

Cockburn, 27, did her honours in visual arts at the Australian National University last year and is internationally recognised as an exciting young talent, with a string of awards including the 2007 Talente prize in Munich, the 2006 E-merge glass prize in the US and the 2006 Ranamok Glass Prize, Australia and New Zealand's top award for contemporary glass.

The artist has a solo show at Sabbia Gallery this month, as well as works at Object. Her award-winning glass sculptures in new design are titled Winter Lights ($8800 a pair) and were inspired by the native grasses of the Monaro Plains and the techniques Aboriginal women use to weave baskets.

"I was looking at the indigenous basket makers of Australia and how honest their art form is," she says. The works are also an expression of where she was emotionally and physically - being a mother of two children and moving from Gerringong to study in Canberra. "The thing that struck me there was the difference of environment - it had all these beautiful grassy plains, whereas the South Coast is a lot lusher, and this place was dry.

"I looked at my surroundings, the natural environment, my place as a young mother and tried to make cradling, nurturing, feminine forms. They are delicate and fine. The colours I tried to make soft and they're tactile - I engraved the whole surface to give it a hands-on feeling."

new design 2007 is at Object Gallery, St Margarets, 417 Bourke Street, Surry Hills, 9361 4555, www.object.com.au. Until July 1. Whispers, a solo show of Cockburn's glassworks, is at Sabbia Gallery, 72 Campbell Street, Surry Hills, 9281 4717, www.sabbiagallery.com. Until July 14.