2016 WILLIAM JOHNSTON'S EMPORIUM | Hecker Guthrie Rearrange William Johnston's Collection

Friday 11 March – Tuesday 28 June 2016

The Johnston Collection has collaborated with international design studio, Hecker Guthrie, in a new exhibition-house tour. HECKER GUTHRIE REARRANGES WILLIAM JOHNSTON’S COLLECTION opens in Fairhall on 11 March and runs until 28 June 2016.

The Hecker Guthrie studio, founded by Paul Hecker and Hamish Guthrie, is a multi-disciplinary practice, based in the inner city suburb of Richmond in Melbourne. The studio is renowned for a large body of work that integrates interiors, buildings, objects and gardens.

For their rearrangement of Fairhall and the Collection, Hecker and Guthrie will transform the exhibition-house with their signature style, incorporating authenticity, craft and enthusiasm and a belief in preserving the integrity and materiality of the interiors that they work on.

In HECKER GUTHRIE REARRANGES WILLIAM JOHNSTON’S COLLECTION Paul Hecker and Hamish Guthrie will create a fictional ‘William Johnston’s Emporium’, an idea inspired by Johnston’s professional life, beginning with his work as a window dresser at the Melbourne department store Buckley & Nunn’s and later, as an antiques trader who loved to scour stores and markets around the world to find his next acquisition.

The Hecker Guthrie rearrangement will consider the origin, object type, materiality and scale of objects in the Collection and will present them in arrangements typical of retail spaces, that being through stacking, dissembling parts or packed up as if to be easily sold, transported or purchased.
Paul Hecker says “We considered taking objects in the Collection and working out ways of displaying them to give the objects more presence. We want to use the objects to create a mystique, a story, as well as to show how Johnston’s antiques can exist in a contemporary way”.

It was Melbourne-born antique dealer and benefactor William Johnston’s wish that his East Melbourne home, Fairhall, be regularly rearranged. Past rearrangements have included those by fashion designer, Akira Isogawa, architect, Pascale Gomes-McNabb, fashion-house, Romance Was Born, artist Rosslynd Piggott, Artistic Director of The Australian Ballet, David McAllister and, most recently, milliner and artist Richard Nylon.

This series of rearrangements provides an opportunity to re-imagine William Johnston’s extraordinary collection in new ways. The Johnston Collection is thrilled to have the exceptionally talented design studio Hecker Guthrie continue this exciting series.

Hamish Guthrie says they enjoy the collaborative process. “It extends and refines our ideas beyond our capabilities and in the process we learn something new which benefits us as designers. We are delighted to have the opportunity to explore and celebrate this extraordinary collection. “

The HECKER GUTHRIE REARRANGES WILLIAM JOHNSTON’S COLLECTION exhibition-house tour will draw the world of contemporary design and the fine and decorative arts of the English Georgian and Regency period together and provide visitors to Fairhall with the opportunity to view William Johnston’s collection through the extraordinary skills and aesthetic of an internationally renowned design studio.

For further information, images or interviews, please contact: T: 03 9416 2515 E: admin@johnstoncollection.org W: johnstoncollection.org