Premier Award for Australian Interior Design / Installation Design
The Bleeding Tree by Liminal Spaces
Design statement —
Angus Cerini’s crafted play The Bleeding
Tree taps into the theme of ongoing violence against women, challenging notions of disempowerment, using black humour to present discomfort. To enable the clarity of Cerini’s words to be preserved, the set design needed to be uncluttered and restrained, providing a backdrop that amplifies the emotion and enhances the starkness. The design embodies and supports the narrative arc of the work, from constraint, oppression and volatility through to strength, stability and regaining control.
Liminal Spaces’ involvement showcases how the spatially tuned sensibility of architects/interior designers, and our awareness of how body and space inform one another, can add value to contemporary performances. The added layer provided by the spatial context can heighten meaning, enrich visual interpretations and intensify theatrical experiences.
The simple set design, or transformable “installation,” created for this performance is innovative in the way that the distillation of spatial design is used to interconnect with the theatrical themes, amplifying, supporting and enhancing the performances of the actors and the narrative, contributing to the element of surprise and the unexpected.
Jury comment (Premier Award for Australian Interior Design) —
The jury unanimously agreed that The Bleeding Tree deserves the Premier Award for Australian Interior Design for the way its powerful presentation reflects the fundamentals of interior design. As a stage set that has been created with light, shade and scale, and where budget was a concern, The Bleeding Tree conveys the true meaning of our craft and also promotes a strong social message around domestic violence. At its core, the best interior design influences emotion and this project does that in the simplest yet most impactful way. If even one piece is removed, it’s nothing, but in its complete simplicity, The Bleeding Tree is everything.
Jury comment (Installation Design) —
Jury members wholeheartedly agreed that The Bleeding Tree is the clear winner in the Installation Design category. The stage set’s stripped-back simplicity demonstrates mastery of form through the use of two planes that visually guide the audience in its emotional response to the performance in front of them. Minimalist lighting and the planes’ different compositions also influence the mood on stage for the performers and, more significantly, provides gravitas to the play’s theme of violence against women.
In a category that has enormous diversity and scale, this project brings us back to the way interior design can affect emotion and does so with the most minimal of gestures. The use of the two planes is innovative, experimental and powerful, creating a tension through subtle movements. It is an extraordinarily wellconsidered, bold and graphic resolution.