Platform is a forum created to bring design, craft and object makers together to cross-pollinate, support and exhibit. It rounds off the year with Platform 24 – Craft Encounters, an exhibition of work by a number of New Zealand’s well known designer/makers.

This is the first in what we envision will be an ongoing event in New Zealand’s design and craft calendar. Platform 24 – Craft Encounters brings together ten mid-career designer/makers, presenting an array of craft explorations, furniture forms, assemblages, and carved sculptures, with common ideals of respect for materials and the environment running through the work. The quality of the craftsmanship is high, and the materials are diverse, ranging from boiled leather to plexiglass, with found objects and precious native timber in between. Each practitioner brings their journey of industry experience, ideas, and skills to the forum, making for a varied and accomplished show.

With the cohort based as far apart as Auckland, Hawkes Bay, Taranaki and Tairawhiti, Platform has created a reason to come together. Strength in numbers! One of the biggest outcomes? ‘The opportunity to hang out with people who speak the same language of making and share a passion for materials and ideas.’

Platform 24 – Craft Encounters features Platform instigators Edward Fuller and Kennedy Brown, joined by Leon Kipa, Tim Wigmore, Rebecca Asquith, Chad Heays, Marion Courtille, Roger Kelly, Rupert Herring, and Katy Wallace.