If you’ve seen Olivia Bossy’s work before, you most likely haven’t forgotten it. There’s something – not only within the design itself, but also in its presentation through styling and photography – that is at once familiar and unique. Scrolling through Bossy’s website or social media, you won’t find lengthy descriptions of each work, but you will see an object or interior that has a strong narrative in its physical presence, and a precision and intelligence that doesn’t need to be defined with words.
Olivia Bossy.
Image: Annika Kafcaloudis
While Bossy’s multidisciplinary work seems to come from a creative practitioner with decades of experience, it was only five years ago that she made the transition from graphic design and completed her first interior project. Titled Freshwater, the 51-square-meter space was “an exercise in streamlining existence, living small but not at the cost of a beautiful functional space,” she explains. For Freshwater, Bossy designed several solid timber furniture pieces, including a desk and bed. “A playful, sometimes awkward aesthetic runs through each piece. They sit in the room as functional installations,” says Bossy. These initial works were handcrafted in solid timber, and over time, Bossy has expanded her material vocabulary to include ceramics, glass, fabric and metal.
Freshwater by Olivia Bossy.
Image: Tom Ross
Since completing Freshwater in 2018, Bossy has produced one-off and limited-edition interior objects, both self-initiated and commissioned, and she has designed several interiors. For Melbourne Design Week 2022, Bossy exhibited her first full collection of objects, hosted by Geoffrey Hatty Applied Arts. “I designed the collection Objects 2022 to see if I could produce a fully resolved body of work without client restrictions – budgetary or otherwise – and to present it in a very stylized way as a kind of experiment rather than setting a standard for future work,” explains Bossy. One of the outcomes from Objects 2022 that feels most emblematic of Bossy’s creative sensibilities is the No. 0422 daybed. Featuring an ebonized Tasmanian blackwood frame alongside a large curved stainless steel shelf, each component of the daybed feels so precise that it could be the work of a twenty-first-century design master. It’s an unforgettable object, which seems to be a common characteristic within Bossy’s oeuvre.
Bossy’s “soft Modernism” is exemplified by the No. 0422 daybed. The piece was inspired by Euclidean geometry and the display mechanism of museum artefacts.
Image: Traianos Pakioufakis
In the same year as Objects 2022, Bossy completed ESM, an audio post-production studio in Sydney. For ESM, Bossy was given the freedom to design everything contained within the space as well as the interior itself. For the project, Bossy dug through materials left over from the construction of the then-control room: “[T]he handles, coat hooks and coffee table were made from rubber offcuts; the sound panels were turned into ‘art,’ hung simply with brackets from the hardware store,” Bossy explains. Interior projects like ESM show the breadth of Bossy’s strength as a multidisciplinary creative who is not limited to interior or object, but who takes a holistic approach to design thinking.
ESM by Olivia Bossy.
Image: Tom Ross
Each work Bossy produces has a sense of experimentation and exploration. The results feel more like inquiries into materials or processes developed in a workshop than like defined objects created with digital technology. “I prefer to spend time in workshops anyway, rather than having a set of perfectly executed technical drawings, as details tend to change and evolve as we’re working through the making,” explains Bossy.
Bossy’s bespoke egg-shaped Big Ears sconces and sunken seating at ESM (2022).
Image: Tom Ross
From interiors to daybeds, wall lights and side tables, Bossy understands that it’s also the partnerships with craftspeople in the workshop space that are crucial to successful outcomes. “This is the best part, working with these great people and figuring out how it’s going to be built. The finished product is satisfying, but the easy joy is in the making,” Bossy says.
The No. 0322 side table.
Image: Traianos Pakioufakis
While Bossy continues to produce individual works and interiors, her favourite projects are those that are all-encompassing. “It’s probably got a little out of hand now in that I would love to do a project where I can design everything: cutlery, soap holder, a toilet brush,” explains Bossy.
Freshwater by Olivia Bossy.
Image: Tom Ross
As I write this article, Bossy is in Paris presenting new work with GSL Gallery, including a piece titled A Table For Some Things (But Not Others). It’s an object made of stainless steel and found timber that looks like no other. Bossy’s work continues to surprise and intrigue; her understanding of material and composition is not defined by a single object or interior, but rather by a sensibility. This leaves us wanting to see that entire interior designed by Bossy – everything, including the toilet brush.
Source
People
Published online: 28 Feb 2024
Words:
Dale Hardiman
Images:
Annika Kafcaloudis,
Celia Spenard-Ko,
Olivia Bossy,
Tom Ross,
Traianos Pakioufakis
Issue
Artichoke, December 2023
