Jessie French – Other Matter
Jessie French of Other Matter invites us to consider a post-petrochemical world with her light-filled tableware.
Words: Emma-Kate Wilson | Photography: Amelia Stanwix
Photo: Amelia Stanwix for The Design Files.
Photo: Amelia Stanwix for The Design Files.
For Melbourne-based artist and designer Jessie French, her eco-minded practice is inspired by ‘exploratory experimentation’ whereby she relies on her materials and the process of making to drive her works. The result are lasting representations of the ocean in bowls, cups, and plates that challenge what we know about bioplastics.
In her organic objects, Jessie uses processed red algae extract with mixed pigments, including microalgae she grows in the studio. ‘I have big saucepans and induction hot plates, and I mix up the recipe for what I'm making that day, and then it goes into the saucepan and cooks for about 45 minutes,’ she shares.
From there, the designs are handmade and poured — each Other Matter piece is as entirely exclusive as the seaweed that makes them. ‘I can replicate singular designs, something that might have block colour on the top and bottom or have a particular swirl, but they'll all be completely unique,’ Jessie adds.
‘The pieces I make are visually distinctive, refined, minimalistic objects, accentuated by unusual patterns and shapes, delicate detailing and light-refracting transparency,’ says Jessie. ‘The organic patterns that detail these vessels are coloured by 100% organic, completely biodegradable ingredients.’
This direction into sustainable design followed after a venture into beekeeping in 2015 and realising the effect climate change was having — from here, she was led down a path of seaweed and bioplastic.
‘Aesthetics are hugely important to adoption for new materials. Materials firstly must be functional, but the look and feel are often what gets them across the line in decision making – both in the first instance as well as the final deliberation,’ says Jessie French. Photo: Amelia Stanwix for The Design Files.
“I think there’s lots to gain from being curious about the world and how it works in general, and not bring restricted to one distinct path of knowledge. Retrospectively, artists have been responsible for a number of scientific breakthroughs and discoveries.”
‘More interdisciplinarity leads to greater diversity, innovation and generative critical views of how things are done,’ says Jessie French. Photo: Amelia Stanwix for The Design Files.
In 2018, Jessie had begun looking into bioplastic recipes and, in 2019, spent six months experimenting with her own. She then went on an arts residency in Morocco, La Pause, whereby pure coincidence, she discovered the world’s largest supply of algal polymer.
‘The work I planned to do on the residency shifted focus researching these supply chains, particularly the sustainability of them, as well as continuing to experiment with materiality and creating larger-scale hanging artworks and objects with organic substrates in them such as soil, olive pits or macroalgae,’ Jessie shares.
Exciting things are developing in this new world of sustainable materials — next year’s Biennale of Sydney, led by artistic director José Roca, is committed to a more eco-minded art exhibition approach and has commissioned Jessie to craft 2.4 meters by 1.2-meter bioplastic walls.
‘Particularly when there are these large-scale temporary exhibitions, with lots of infrastructures such as plywood walls that get built only for the exhibition and then thrown out,’ Jessie adds. Instead, this focus on minimal impact reveals a conscious choice.
Other Matter has also just been nominated for three categories in The Design Files and Laminex Design Awards 2021 — Sustainable Design or Initiative; Handcrafted; and Emerging Designer. This means so much to Jessie as the community of designers working with biomaterial is limited in Australia.
‘It is this glimmer of hope where you can look at this polymer and this way of working with it and really see how it could be a solution,’ Jessie reflects. ‘It can be a fully recyclable, completely sustainable product — plus, the production of these materials is carbon negative.’
Jessie is part of a new wave of designers and artists who can inspire others to seek out eco-materials and challenge what we think is the norm. Other Matter reveals what can be done in the design world — influenced by both art and science — to genuinely make a difference to the climate crisis we are facing while providing beautiful designs to cherish.
Photo: Amelia Stanwix for The Design Files.
Photo: Amelia Stanwix for The Design Files.
