Winning entry of Australia's richest furniture design prize is The Dream

The Head of the Furniture Workshop at the ANU School of Art & Design has been named winner of Australia’s richest furniture design prize.

Ashley Eriksmoen scooped $20,000 in cash and a two-week residency program at JamFactory after winning the 2022 Australian Furniture Design Award, presented by the National Gallery of Victoria and Stylecraft.

Commenting on her win, Ashley said: “It is super exciting because it is not just a cash prize recognising my contributions to the national discourse on Australian furniture design, but also includes a residency at the Jam Factory (design incubation organisation in Adelaide) and an opportunity to collaborate with Stylecraft in product development, so I can bring sustainable and reparative materials and fabrication methodologies to market.”

“The design incorporated the extensive skills and research into Eucalyptus dye done by Dr Sally Blake, School of Art & Design PhD in Textiles.”

The Dream, or The view from here is both bleak and resplendent is Ashley’s winning entry. It resembles a chaise lounge, but features 47 legs and a canopy that “overhangs like a cresting wave”. Dyed wool in shades ranging from white to rust forms its upholstery. 

“The aim of the work is to bring into view the cognitive dissonance between consumer choices and ecological decline, and to challenge Cartesian notions of order, utility, and a planned universe by meeting the world as we find it,” Ashley says.

Her work speaks to the theme of this year’s Melbourne Design Week, which the 2022 Australian Furniture Design Award was part of. The theme was 'design the world you want’.

“The world I want doesn’t just start applying better design and manufacturing principles from this point forward; the world I want begins to mend past damages as well,” Ashley says. “Put bluntly, twenty-first century material culture has an opportunity not just to be less bad, but to reconcile with the past and innovate for truly sustainable futures.”

Simone LeAmon, jury chair and The Hugh Williamson Curator of Contemporary Design and Architecture, National Gallery of Victoria, praised Ashley’s winning work as an exquisite construction.

“The furniture design belies a sombre yet critical message alerting us to the relationships between consumer waste, natural resources, deforestation and habitat destruction,” Simone said. “The work implores us to consider strategies for creating sustainable new furniture designs from the wealth of resources that we already have at our disposal.”

The 2022 Australian Furniture Design Award received 70 final entries, with five finalists chosen nationally. ANU Art & Design PhD candidate Elliot Bastianon, who Ashley supervises, was also shortlisted for the award. 

The Dream, or The view from here is both bleak and resplendent and the works by the five finalists will be on display in the Stylecraft showroom until 25 March.


Written by Evana Ho