Commissioned in partnership with the National Gallery of Victoria, the inaugural Melbourne Art Fair Design Commission exists to support the realisation of a significant design work, presented first at the fair and subsequently at the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia. U lights and vases 2025 expands Varendorff’s hallmark tubular language into a striking installation of suspended ceiling lights and monumental floor vessels. The suspended elements are paired in mirrored arrangements – one upright, one inverted – forming rhythmic compositions that cast light both above and below. Spanning ceiling and ground, the installation is anchored by large-scale floor vessels designed to hold plants and florals, echoing the forms above and grounding the work with scale and gravity. Depending on its configuration, the work transforms a space with density and drama or with openness and restraint, heightening our perception of object, space and light, and inviting a renewed wonder in the utilitarian.

2026 Melbourne Art Foundation Design Commission in partnership with the National Gallery of Victoria. Supported by Artwork Transport.