De-Sir

Savanna Hunter | Chiquita Dean | Lucia Daamen-Shanahan

20 August - 28 August

The exhibition title draws on Experimental Jetset’s concept of de-sign ‘the idea of questioning and unpacking the assumptions embedded within design’. DeSir showcases three typefaces created by Savanna Hunter, Chiquita Dean, and Lucia Daamen-Shanahan to challenge traditional design histories. By focusing on feminist and decolonial perspectives, the work investigates how women's labour and Indigenous knowledge systems have been historically marginalised or erased from the typographic record. Each project uses contemporary type design as a tool for historical inquiry, reimagining narratives through embroidery-inspired forms, reinterpretations of early European printing, and speculative Māori visual languages.

Visitors can engage directly with these ideas through three keyboard stations, each featuring one of the typefaces. As visitors type, their words are projected onto a shared wall, allowing the three typefaces to overlap and interact. In doing so, typography becomes something to experience rather than simply observe. Type is embedded in everyday life. Ultimately, this becomes a political act capable of reshaping how society remembers and records creative contributions. Through this collection of researchdriven work, the designers position design as a critical method for questioning power and authorship in visual culture.

Savanna revives letterforms from 15th-century theology textbook printed by Anton Koberger. Her work inserts a contemporary female perspective into the traditionally male narrative of early European printing, addressing the systemic absence of women in the “cradle of printing”.

Chiquita speculates on what Māori typography might look like if it had evolved through mātauranga Māori rather than the roman alphabet. By developing a character-based visual language, the work imagines an alternative typographic future for te reo Māori.

Lucia explores the visual language of cross-stitch embroidery, challenging its marginalisation as “domestic labour”. By translating this traditional domestic craft into a digital typeface, she elevates a practice historically associated with women’s work into contemporary design culture.

Together, these three projects demonstrate how typography can operate as a form of critical design practice.

STUDENT SERIES 2026

20 August - 14 October

Exhibition schedule

 Exhibition 1: De-Sir

Artists: Savanna Hunter, Chiquita Dean, Lucia Daamen- Shanahan

  • Opening: 20th August (5 pm - 7pm)

  • Artist Talk: 21st August (12pm - 1pm)

Exhibition 2: Consumption, Media, Womanhood

Artists: Vienna Rose Nunns, Neve Vangioni, Sophie Brown, Olivia Moore, Lourie Torr

  • Opening: 10th September (5pm - 7pm)

  • Artist Talk 11th September (12pm - 1pm)

Exhibition 3: No Kurawaka Tatou

Artists: George Atai French, Mia Ata Marama Anderson, George Brunton, Ana Krakosky

  • Opening: 24th September (5pm - 7 pm)

  • Artist Talk: 25th September (12pm - 1pm)

  

Exhibition 4: Super/Dairy,

Artists: Lucy Lallemant, Jack Freeman, Emma Foung

  • Opening: 8th October (5pm - 7pm)

  • Artist Talk: 9th October (12 - 1pm)