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At first it looks like an interruption, like a screen paused mid-reboot. A passing phase, technically intermediate, neither here nor there. In the wrong hands, it’s devoid of character, the colour of the drawn and pallid. Were it presented to you on a plate, there are no circumstances under which you would wish to taste it. Call it ‘grey’, sure, but saturate it a little and it becomes something else. It’s the Brutalist rigour of poured concrete. It’s the indelible impression left in the wake of voracious fire: deep charcoal, silken ash, the insidious perfume of smoke.
Pulled back from the brink and it’s the stately and purifying tincture of a black and white photograph. It’s the dawn light diffused by a summer storm, a colour just as home in the natural world as it is the manmade. Sometimes it’s wizened, the uniform tone of order and control. At others, it’s headstrong, disciplined. It’s LeBron and the Cavs impeccably dressed in coordinated Thom Browne Super 120s wool twill made-to-measure shrunken tailoring, arriving at the playoffs en masse. It’s the glistening links and interlocking plates of armour.
Closer to home, grey takes on another character entirely. Used sparingly or taken to an all-enveloping extreme, there is a quiet subversion to be found at play whenever a shade accustomed to blending in seamlessly is forced suddenly to stand out. Be it in cool dolomite Elba marble excavated from a single Grecian quarry, opaque greyscale resin obfuscated by metallic whorls or clean cut smoky glass blown by mouth, few shades reveal themselves to be as easy to live with – and cerebral – as this.
First image
Medium Resin Pebble Vase in Smoke, Dinosaur Designs, $220. SHOP NOW
Small Resin Mother Of Pearl Dish in Smoke, Dinosaur Designs, $60. SHOP NOW
Resin Stone Dinner Plate in Smoke, Dinosaur Designs, $160. SHOP NOW
Resin Temple Vase in Smoke, Dinosaur Designs, $210. SHOP NOW
Second image
S Carafe, Maison Balzac, $79. SHOP NOW
Medium goblet, Maison Balzac, $59. SHOP NOW
Third image
Hemera desk lamp, Ross Gardam for New Volumes by Artedomus, $5,495. SHOP NOW
THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED IN THE INAUGURAL EDITION OF ICON. SUBSCRIBE HERE TO RECEIVE TWO PRINT EDITIONS PER YEAR FOR $15 AUD
Tile and cover image: Steven Popovich
Art direction: Dané Stojanovic
