Temper Forte Exalts Sobering, Pristine Metalwork from Across the Australian Continent

Temper Forte is an editorial body of work envisioned by Australia-based art director and spatial designer James Guerrisi and photographer Pier Carthew.

The project celebrates and highlights a selection of local established and emerging designers that display craftsmanship and refinement through form and materiality, hinging on a sincere and sober commitment to metals.

The collections photographed here harken back to the 1980s – its era's design catalogs characterized by a sense of dystopian futurism – and reference the foundational architectural and aesthetic movements of minimalism and brutalism.

Symbolic of the work, the project title is a play on the Italian phrase 'Semper Forte,' which translates to 'forever strong.' 'Temper' is a metallurgy process of improving the characteristics of metal – again, the material focus for each of the designers' works; and 'Forte' is translated as a 'thing' at which someone excels.

The title is a nod to the excellence and mastery of each participating designer, all local to Australia and produced domestically. These talents include the likes of Volker Haug Studio, a Melbourne design team known for refined lighting whose feature piece is from the Volker Haug versus Seattle-based glass artist John Hogan series, furniture designers Brud Studia, whose work joins absurdity with age-old design methodologies, interior design office Fiona Lynch, whose remarkable cabinet set is merely one of her innovative, custom design solutions for her explorative projects, and emerging furniture studio Another Bureau of Design, whose metal furniture pieces made a splash on the market after being featured in SIZE gallery's NY design week installation this past season.

Images courtesy of James Guerrisi
Photography by Pier Carthew