POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

'Poli' chair designed by Grant and Mary Featherston

Object No. A10980

One of the new wave of Australian designers to emerge in the immediate post-war years, Grant Featherston (1922-1995) designed his first chair in 1947. In the early 1950s he developed the now famous 'Contour' range of chairs. First launched in 1951, the 'Contour' was an immediate success, its innovative plywood shell formed using a process that Featherston developed himself in the absence of suitable plywood bending technology locally. In 1957 Featherston was appointed consultant designer to Aristoc Industries, a Melbourne manufacturer of metal furniture. This highly fruitful collaboration resulted in the production of a variety of chairs including the 'Mitzi' (1957), 'Scape' (1960), the 'Expo 67 talking chair' and the 'Stem' chair of 1969. In 1966 Featherston formed a partnership with his wife Mary Featherston (nee Curry, born England 1943), an interior designer who had studied at RMIT. Their 'Expo 67' chair, with its polystyrene shell, was only the beginning of a run of chairs that, in the spirit of the times, explored the limitless possibilities of plastics in the creation of innovative seating forms: ' ... the integrated one-piece plastic chair [represented] ... the pinnacle of the furniture designer's aspirations. Plastics and moulding technology expresses the synergetic challenge most eloquently. No other material so inherently speaks of body and process, offering a 'negative' of the human body.' (Grant Featherston, 'Design reflections', In Future, no 4, Feb-March 1987. Quoted in Terence Lane, Featherston Chairs, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1988, p12) The rotation-moulded, polyethylene 'Stem' chair took 18 months to reach production stage and was one of the most technologically sophisticated chairs ever made in Australia. It, and other innovative designs by the Featherstons helped expand the technological capabilities of local furniture manufacturers at a time when there viability was constantly under threat from foreign imports. The Featherstons' efforts to keep the local industry competitive while supplying the market with chairs that were technologically and stylistically equal to overseas examples resulted in an important body of work that has significantly enriched Australia's design history.

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Summary

Object Statement

Chair, 'Poli', fibreglass reinforced polyester, designed by Grant and Mary Featherston, Victoria, made by Polyfibre Products, Hawthorn, Victoria for Module Furniture Co, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 1971

Physical Description

Chair, 'Poli', made of orange fibreglass reinforced polyester with a gel coat finish. The curved shell has a longitudinal mould junction and two drainage holes in the seat. The concave side form the legs. The reverse and underside are black in colour.

DIMENSIONS

Height

750 mm

Width

740 mm

Depth

720 mm

PRODUCTION

Notes

Designed by Grant and Mary Featherston, Victoria, 1971. Manufactured by Polyfibre Products for Module Furniture Co, Australia, 1971. Designed by Grant and Mary Featherston, made by Polyfibre products for Module Furniture Co, Australia, 1971.

HISTORY

Notes

Owned by Grant and Mary Featherston, Ivanhoe, Victoria.

SOURCE

Credit Line

Gift of Grant and Mary Featherston, 1984

Acquisition Date

16 November 1984

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