Annaliese McCarthy
Maker Member
Design
Annaliese McCarthy is a proud Gadigal woman with a professional background in architecture and furniture design. She was honoured in the Australian Design Review's 30 Under 30 list for Architects and Innovators of the Built World in 2024. With a love for architecture and furniture design, her journey has taken her from Tokyo on the New Colombo Plan Scholarship to a previous role as Senior Designer at Blaklash. She is now expanding into exhibition design and theatre set design, including collaborating with Bangarra Dance Theatre on multiple productions. Annaliese is passionate about supporting communities to convey their stories and history through design, particularly by creating spaces and objects by and for First Nations communities.
"My design practice turns cultural practice into contemporary furniture and theatre set design. I begin with deep research into a place's geography which informs my forms, colours, materials and construction details.
I want to expand my design work across textiles, timber, metal and leather, using Rhino 3D modelling to explore scale and early design forms. I collaborate closely with local manufacturers while maintaining a home workshop and sewing studio to make what I can by hand. My influences include Julie Gough's 'Manifestation (Bruny Island)'. Domestic labour has predominantly been performed by First Nations women, and the domestic context has long been weaponised against us. Reclaiming this space through furniture design and cultural practice feels like decolonisation in action. Most First Nations people live in urban and suburban Australia. We deserve to see our cultures represented in domestic contexts, in subtle and beautiful ways."
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Online Resources:
Website: https://annaliesemccarthydesign.weebly.com/
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