‘I can’t believe an ashtray won’: How rotting teeth became a design hit

Maryam Moghadam is still trying to work out how her ashtray depicting rotting teeth took out top prize at Australia’s oldest awards program for emerging design.

“I can’t believe an ashtray won. I find it very comical. It’s a bit cheeky, isn’t it?” the 26-year-old Melbourne-based designer says.

Her 3D-printed ashtray, titled Gnawing Knowing, took out the Judges’ Choice Award at VIVID, part of the annual Decor+Design show in Melbourne. In the past, the prize has gone to more substantial pieces of furniture such as seating, lighting and storage units. At barely 10cm wide the ashtray serves as a functional object, with a humorous touch.

Gnawing Knowing features teeth in varying stages of decay.Credit:

VIVID curator Daniel Dalla Riva says the ashtray provoked debate among the 12 jury members, which included industry stalwarts such as Anne Maree Sargeant from the Authentic Design Alliance, Byron George from Russell & George and Georgian Greenland from the Design Institute of Australia.

“For a competition like VIVID, many people would expect a beautifully crafted chair or a piece of joinery to win the top prize, but the jury could see through all that and could understand the message Maryam was trying to send,” says Dalla Riva. “It really challenged people to understand – is she making a social statement to discourage smoking? Or to make light of the topic? It’s that prompting of thought that was appealing. All good design challenges people to think and consider.

“It’s also just really well resolved design.”

The VIVID awards have been supporting emerging industrial designers in Australia for more than 30 years. Dalla Riva says it has evolved from being a platform for graduates hitting the jobs market to a sophisticated showcase of some of the best emerging design products in the country.

“In the early days, it was very much a student design competition,” he says. “We really wanted to elevate it to be above the graduate work to really celebrate the best of design and show high-quality work, but also to encourage the playfulness and naivety of design students – before it gets crushed.”

Jury members deliberating their decisions during the judging period at the VIVID awards.Credit: Peter Clarke

The circular ashtray features an array of rotting teeth in various hues of decay, with a few gaps designed for placing a cigarette. Moghadam says the fact that people are talking about it means she has achieved her goal.

“The idea, first of all, it’s a contradiction. It’s a functional ashtray, which means it is pro smoking, at the same time, though, it is an anti-smoking advertisement because it is showing the rotting mouth. I wanted to explore the idea that we can hold two mindsets at the same time.”

Moghadam, who studied industrial design at university because her father considered fine arts an insecure career path, enjoys the space between practicality and provocation and seeks to create products that spark conversations, with a smile.

“The gum [on the ashtray] is functional and there are a few amber-stained, rotting teeth. But because it’s humorous, the initial reaction is a bit of a chuckle. I know it’s confronting, but it’s not confronting in just a repulsive sense, so the initial reaction is a softening of the face and more of an amusement.

“Ideally, when someone lights a smoke, I’d like them to think about their mouth rotting.”

While the focus of her work is on smoking, she says there is opportunity to broaden the discussion to include various addictions – and our capacity as humans to succumb to them.

“We can know that something is bad for us – like smoking – but that civilised side knows something is bad for us, but that animal side still engages in self-destructive behaviour. I find that fascinating. That’s what I was exploring – this idea that humans are contradictions.”

Maryam Moghadam with her Cheeky stools. She hopes her work can spark conversation through humour.Credit:

Moghadam already has form using humour to drive the narrative of her work. Last year, she won top prize at Australia’s Next Top Designer for her Cheeky stools, which resemble, well, bums.

While they are highly functional as beautiful, lightweight, portable seating, she created them in various colourways to reflect different skin tones and promote inclusivity. She says she knows it is “very ambitious”, but when placed in public environments she hopes they can go some way to addressing the loneliness epidemic, because they can prompt playful conversations among strangers.

“Humour is a really under-rated tool of human connection,” she says. “I saw that through the responses of people who visited. When they saw the bum, their faces would soften up and they would become more open. Even though they were strangers, they were open to conversations. It broke down that initial barrier.”

For now, the designer is working on recreating her ashtray in ceramic. She is also working with a Melbourne manufacturer to create a prototype for her stools.

“I like the idea of timeless design, refining something that can be a timeless piece. If I can nut something out until it’s perfect, I’d rather do that than just keep churning new things.”

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