‘Chairity’ project hits right timbre
THE “Chairity Project” asked 14 designers to each reinterpret a classic Danish chair to be auctioned for a charity of their choice.
IT’S a project Fred Hollows would have loved to have got his hands on. Fourteen designers asked to each reinterpret a classic Danish chair to be auctioned for a charity of their choice.
“Fred was a micro-surgeon, but his passion, his outlet when he came home, was woodworking and he just loved working with timber,” said Gabi Hollows, sitting on a chest built by her late husband.
“He would have been right up there talking to all the designers about how they did their designs. He would have liked to have done it himself, I think.”
The “Chairity Project” is organised by interior designers Cult, who asked designers from Australia and New Zealand to reinterpret the classic CH33 chair created by Hans Wegner for Carl Hansen & Son.
For interior designer George Livissianis, the Fred Hollows Foundation was an easy choice.
“My wife’s grandfather was an ophthalmologist and did some work in Aboriginal communities and he had diabetes and went blind,” he said.
While picking the Hollows Foundation was an easy call, moments during the redesign of the original beech chair were a little more nerve-racking.
“The way I achieved the black colour was to burn it, so I kind of only had one opportunity to get it right,” he said.
The Hollows house is full of stools and cabinets built by Fred. “People would always say, ‘Fred, can you fix this’, and he loved doing that,” Gabbi Hollows said.
That passion will continue in the Hollows household with their daughter Rosa this year signing off on her carpentry apprenticeship — on the 21st anniversary of Fred’s death, February 10.
Bidding for the 14 chairs closes on Wednesday evening. Visit stores.ebay.com.au/bidsforgood/chairity