Ngumu Janka Warnti | All Made from Rubbish High Back Chair

Description

Ngumu Jangka Warnti is the Walmajarri phrase for ‘whole lot from rubbish’. 

The design of this collection began with a trip to the local scrap metal yard in Thirroul, in a search for an interesting waste material to use as a catalyst for a design collaboration between Johnny Nargoodah and Trent Jansen. The designers salvaged a selection of discarded aluminium mesh and used this found metal as the starting point for experimentation. 

Starting by cutting the mesh substrate vaguely into the shape of a chair, the designers together beat the material with hammers, concrete blocks and tree stumps until it took on a form that they both liked. This beaten geometry was then softened by laminating New Zealand saddle leather to skin the mesh, masking its geometry and softening its idiosyncratic undulations. 

After their success in creating the first chair of this series through an iterative process of haptic collaboration on site, the designers used it as the basis of a new collection. The entire Ngumu Jangka Warnti | All Made from Rubbish collection is made up of a range of furniture, using the same leather-wrapped aluminium mesh, and working on Country to develop a language of forms, from chairs and tables to cabinets, benches and bowls.

While a limited edition work, each piece is unique in its final shape and detailing.

Johnny Nahgoodah & Trent Jansen
Ngumu Janka Warnti | All Made from Rubbish High Back Chair, 2020
leather, aluminium
145 x 60 x 50 cm
edition of 5 +2AP