Conscious Craft – The Future is in the Making

Design begins with desire – with the urge to create, to connect and to shape the future. Conscious Craft – The Future is in the Making invites audiences into a space where exceptional design meets deep material intelligence. Curated by Craft, this exhibition showcases the work of four pioneering artists and makers: Isabel Avendaño-Hazbún, Billie Civello, Claire Ellis, and Locki Humphrey.

The booth is driven by aesthetic ambition and tactile allure, and circularity underpins every decision – from concept to construction. In confronting the waste often generated by temporary events, Craft present a new model: one where regenerative design is not a constraint, but a catalyst for exceptional outcomes.

Working at the intersection of tradition and innovation, the artists transform overlooked materials into objects of desire:

• Isabel Avendaño-Hazbún continues her exploration of discarded inner tyre tubes, translating them into a refined series of lights and a woven rug, inspired by the fundamentals of the punk movement.
• Billie Civello presents Limb, a chair and stool cast in recycled aluminium from branches gathered on walks across Melbourne and along the Merri Creek. Preserving each limb’s irregular form through mould-making, Civello transforms fleeting, quotidian encounters into enduring objects that carry traces of time, place and personal memory.
• Claire Ellis presents Break To Open, a collection of sculptural ceramic vessels inspired by medieval Tudor money boxes. These sealed forms – crafted from local circular materials and single-fired using electric kilns – symbolically leak recycled green glass in place of traditional toxic glazes. Each piece responds to fossil fuel disinformation and economic myths shaping Australian climate politics, with titles referencing searchable news articles that support informed discourse.
• Locki Humphrey expands their work with Prickly Pear–based leather alternatives, integrating woven upholstery and responsibly-sourced timber into a new furniture collection.

Through cross-disciplinary collaboration, Conscious Craft offers a compelling vision of design – aspirational as it is accountable. It presents collectible works – ceramic sculpture, furniture, and lighting – that invite design lovers to collect with purpose and invest in a more sustainable future.

FUTUREOBJEKT is a platform for discovery: a place where collectors encounter the new, the daring, and the exquisitely made. Presented as part of Melbourne Art Fair 2026.