Australian curation-led design company Broached Commissions has spent the last four days exhibiting their unique approach to the creation of bespoke objects  at Design Days Dubai, the first fair in the Middle East and South Asia dedicated to collectible and limited edition furniture and design objects

The brainchild of Creative Director Lou Weis and design industry entrepreneur Vincent Aiello, Broached Commissions create objects in response to a specific context and their research into it. As well as participating in group design projects, Broached also develops internal collections focused on Australia history and accepts commercial commissions.

The Broached Colonial and East collections are the company’s interal research exercises which deliver tightly curated, highly resolved, unified connections whilst simultaneously showing the unique vision of each participating designer. Objects from their Colonial collection are the feature of the company's Design Days Dubai exhibition.

The same contextual process that drives their group and internal projects is employed for their commercial collections, the most recent of which is a collection of pieces created for the new design hotel in Caberra, Hotel Hotel. This collection was also curator driven and focused on the founding vision for Canberra, created by the Burley Griffins. 

Broached Commissions were asked to exhibit at Design Days Dubai by the director of the fair, Cyril Zammit, who contacted Lou Weis and requested that Broached participate. Zammit had been looking and looking for a limited edition design gallery in Australia, and it wasn't until the company was launched in late 2011 that such an entity existed.” Originally I was only going to participate in Dubai by doing a talk, Weis explains. “This is still happening, but we also ended up bringing the pieces here.”

One of the feature objects of their Design Days Dubai exhibition is the Briggs Family Tea Service which represents the marriage of George Briggs, a free settler to Tasmania, to Woretermoeteyenner of the Pairrebeenne people, and the four children they had together. According to the Broached, “The tea service brings together the materials common for water holding to each culture: porcelain in Britain and bull kelp in Tasmania, representing the beginnings of a hybrid culture.”

The Design Days Dubai fair has been a positive experience for Broached which has sold a few works and had enquiries from prospective clients interested in commissioning new work from Broached. “The reaction to the Broached Colonial works has been extremely positive,” says Weis. “People vary in their interest: some like the formal elements of the work and do not require any further information. Others only connect to a piece once they know a little bit about the back story.”