In Conversation With CJ Anderson

HELLO CJ, CAN YOU TELL ME A BIT ABOUT WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU DO?

I’m CJ, I’m a designer based on the Gold Coast, making thought provoking objects and furniture.

YOUR BIO SAYS THAT YOU’VE BEEN INVOLVED IN MAKING FROM BIRTH, WHAT DID THAT LOOK LIKE?

It was quite literally from birth. My dad builds custom motorcycles, so I grew up with a full machine shop in my backyard. Everyone on my dad's side is very mechanically minded, so it's like a second nature to me. Thinking about how to weld or fabricate something is not the problem for me.

I never realised how valuable that was until I started doing my degree. I studied a Bachelor of Digital Media majoring in 3D Design, so it’s a really good skill to have. My degree wasn't industrial design and it wasn't art, it kind of sat on the cusp of both. I learned CAD, but didn't have that engineering underpinning. Growing up in the workshop, I kind of got a general understanding of how things work.

For me, it's like, how do I push those manufacturing  skills to another area. How do I bring an art intent to something that's traditionally manufacturing based, or how do I push the bounds of what is traditionally acceptable in terms of scale or even material?

A LOT OF AUSTRALIAN DESIGNERS RELOCATE TO SYDNEY OR MELBOURNE, IF THEY’RE NOT FROM THERE ALREADY. HOW HAVE YOU FOUND BEING A DESIGNER ON THE GOLD COAST?

It's actually awesome and there are lots of positives. I think up here we've got a really supportive community in terms of the Gold Coast City Council and the creative community it supports. I was lucky enough to show in Milan last year with my furniture, which was an out of this world experience. When I was there, so many people assumed, “Oh, so you're from Sydney or Melbourne?” and I had to keep telling them I was from the Gold Coast. There were about 40 other Australian designers and most of them were from either Sydney or Melbourne. And then there was this one guy, me, from the Gold Coast of all places. 

It’s quite a big point of difference. There aren't a lot of people up here doing the kind of work that I'm doing. In Southeast Queensland, there are a lot of really skilled timber furniture makers, like quite a lot, but there's not a lot of people who are making furniture that borders art and design. I think that's where I ultimately see my practice sitting.

There's not a huge amount of competition, compared to other states. In saying that, there’s a core group of people that I still collaborate with who are doing similar work. It’s really important to have a community to keep me going. 

YOUR DESIGNS ARE TRULY UNIQUE, WHERE DO YOU DRAW YOUR INSPIRATION FROM?

So, for my large chair, I came up with the idea of that as I was building it. I gave it the name SOIGNÉ, which means elegant. As a designer you kind of go, “boom, titled, next” but I think reflecting on it, I'd just had my son Leo. He was three or four months old at the time. I was looking at how children view the scale of objects and how you can get adults to view the scale of objects in the same way. I want people to see my piece and go, “hang on, that's familiar,” but the scale is bigger than what you think it needs to be, or what it traditionally is. That’s been a huge inspiration. A lot of the things that I've been designing lately have been based on that childlike fascination, exploring multiple materials. It’s like sensory play, everyone who sees the chair touches it because they’re so curious to know what it’s made of. Is it plastic? Is it metal? It just intrigues them.

WHAT HAVE BEEN SOME OF THE CHALLENGES YOU’VE ENCOUNTERED IN YOUR WORK?

I collaborate with my dad on the manufacturing which helps me prioritise my family. At the end of the day, yes, I design furniture, but my priority is with my family. That's a never ending challenge. Leo, my son, he’s amazing, he's always asking “Let's get a workshop, let's go and build." and if I open up my shed, he's out there tinkering away by himself. So that's really beautiful. 

The other difficulty up until recently has been fitting in a full time job. Everything that I've done has literally been squeezed into any spare minute between family and full time work. But I think a positive that's come out of that challenge; actually realising what's important. You know, I could put out 300 pieces a year, but that doesn't mean anything. For me it's developing work that speaks to who I am and what I want to do. At the end of the day, I design most of this work so that it can sit in my home. If it's not received anywhere else, I don't really have a problem with it because it's going to look beautiful in my home and we're going to really enjoy it here.

There’s also the never ending problem (that anyone who lives outside of Sydney or Melbourne has) of not being in that market and being right there. Whenever I have to do a show outside of the Gold Coast, I've got to factor in shipping. I can't just create something and present it the next day. In that way I’ve always got to be a little bit more targeted with the way that I do things.

WHAT’S NEXT ON THE HORIZON FOR CJ ANDERSON?

I've got a range of pieces that I'm currently working on. New work never stops, it’s just a matter of figuring out how and where to show it. I'm also trying to bring up some exhibitions to Southeast Queensland, so that we can see what the rest of the design community outside of QLD are doing. I’m talking with a few people around the country about what that will look like. There are a lot of people who are doing really amazing things here, but it's always good to benchmark your work against national and international designers. 

I'm also working on a collaboration with a good friend of mine, Jay Jermyn, we're looking at creating a range of pieces for the commercial market. That way I don't have to, within my own practice, worry about how to sell objects. I can truly do the things that I just love and want to do.