Creating a forest from furniture

In her first Canberra solo exhibition, Ashley Eriksmoen, internationally renowned furniture maker and head of the ANU Furniture Workshop, has brought new life to discarded furniture.

For Reforestation: how to make a tree from a chair, Ashley has created a forest using parts of tables, chairs and bed headboards to form whole trees. Her pieces encapsulate the lively, organic nature of trees yet still hold hints of their former life as furniture. The shape and existing craftwork of the wood inspired each tree, and they have been carefully assembled using traditional furniture joinery techniques.

“Wooden furniture is made from trees – living things,” says Ashley. “The idea with this exhibition was to take furniture that was dead and buried and bring it back to life, completely reversing the usual process of making furniture from living trees.”

For months in the lead up to the exhibition, Ashley rescued rejected furniture from the Green Shed in Mugga Lane – furniture that was broken and couldn’t be sold even in a second hand market.

Although she only used discarded furniture, Ashley says that most of it could have been easily fixed with a little glue and re-upholstering. She was even reluctant to dismantle some pieces because they could be fixed so easily.

This exhibition has a strong environmental message and draws attention to the issue of deforestation. While furniture previously stayed in families for generations – long enough to regrow trees used to make the pieces – these days a piece of furniture might not even last ten years. It asks what happens when we have no forests left to source wood.

In her practice as a furniture maker, Ashley’s work seeks to connect people to their personal spaces. In creating furniture she takes wood from its wild, natural state to one that will behave indoors without losing its living spirit.

This exhibition is part of Designing a Capital: Crafting a Nation curated by CraftACT: Craft and Design Centre

Artist’s Floor Talk: Saturday 25 May, 2.30-4.00pm, Canberra Museum and Gallery

Exhibition Dates: 23 May – 22 June

Location: Gallery 4, Canberra Museum and Gallery, North Building, 180 London Circuit, Canberra City.