Samples of Published Work: Interiors LIVING IT UP

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EXCLUSIVE MUSICIANSONG ANDREW KLIPPEL DISCUSSES THE CREATIVE RESONANCE OF HIS HOME AND WORKPLACE WITH SUSIE BURGE

PHOTOGRAPHY CHRIS COURT STYLING SIBELLA COURT

T’S MAGIC, this place, a converted boathouse on the edge of the harbour in ISydney’s Birchgrove. Light and water dance through the two large interconnecting rooms. There are the sounds of clinking boats and seabirds and the gentle lapping of waves. The briny taste of the air. The views of old stanchions and a ship docked on the north shore give a sense of a working harbour, not just a pretty one. The boathouse belongs to Andrew Klippel, composer and producer (The Veronicas, The Vines, Human Nature, Euphoria, Holly Valance, as well as more esoteric jazz and rap). It used to be the studio of his father, the late, great Australian sculptor Robert (Bob) Klippel. Memories ood in as Andrew shows me around. I rst came here with my father – a keen collector and friend of Bob’s – when I was about 10 years old. Then, the windows were papered over to block out the distractions of views and sunlight. A couple of industrial lamps hung from the ceiling. Every available surface was covered in abstract metal sculptures and works in progress. These days, a baby grand piano stands on the restored The restored boathouse, with its harbour views, is a creative original, polished, kauri pine oorboards. space for composer/producer The weatherboard walls are painted white. Andrew Klippel (pictured). It’s a graceful care-lled room, a creative Wood and metal sculptures by his father, Robert Klippel, sit space of another kind. below a window looking out “Do you compose on the piano?” I ask  into a courtyard where another Klippel sculpture – a bronze birdbath – stands sentinel

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it’s acoustically amazing. Perhaps because of the shape of it, the shape of the ceiling (a trapezium)…I don’t know, but the Orange Album was recorded on that piano in this room,” he says. “The room itself is extremely responsive. It’s like an instrument, like a great ampli er. It works with the piano beautifully.” (He wrote and produced Orange with Mike Nock and Pnau’s Nick Littlemore and Peter Mayes. The soundscape he created for the exhibition at the NGV is closely related to a track from Orange.) Currently, Andrew divides his time between LA and Sydney. He’s got six different projects going on at the moment, some in traditional music format and two incorporating visual format. “I still love doing pop music, very much,” he says, reminding me of his collaboration with James Packer in Engine Room Music and talking about catching up with Human Nature (he wrote their rst platinum hit, among others). “But the three-minute pop song was there because of the nature of vinyl – there are more options now.” One project involves working with Paris-based animators. “Visually, Oboreet, consecte etue it’s kind of like Lichtenstein meets tin ullutat illut alisl ulla “We went to huge lengths to restore what was The gorgeouslyfeugiam aliquip serene suscidunt Fat Albert,” he says of his newest rap bedroomvelis looks diametue out over duisismod here – you can feel the weatherboards and the venture, aiming for online and cable the watermagna on onefacin side utem quis is place breathes to me.” rather than traditional distribution. and opensnos outdigna into conulla the conse history within them. courtyard on the other. Andrew’s latest CD release –Andrew The boathouse also has Klippel Compositions 1980-1983 – is a pontoon (right) Andrew. “Always on the piano,” he Andrew moved into the boathouse a collection of pieces he wrote between nods emphatically. Adjacent to the in 1999. “I’d been thinking about it the ages of 13 and 16 and recorded piano, running the length of the since I was a kid, so it was a real treat to with the Mike Nock Trio at the Sydney interior wall dividing living space from renovate it. Dad was still around and we Opera House earlier this year. “Dad bedroom, are stacks of art books on a had New Year’s Eve down here when it was taking me out to Caringbah for my timber bench. Above these hang framed was all nished, the year before he passed piano lessons and the lesson every week Robert Klippel collages, made out of away [in 2001]. He loved what I’d was to write a song. Now I listen, they tiny cut-out bits of iridescent paper. done, he loved it down here.” Choosing are some of the best things I’ve ever Andrew and I reminisce about our the materials and ttings, removing written,” he says, laughing a little. late fathers, talking about the present, the old asbestos oor, restoring the Time’s got away from us. The about art, about music, caught in the original oorboards and weatherboards, afternoon has turned gunmetal grey ebb and ow of time. “There’s a lot jacking up the building so it was level under a cloudy sky. Andrew has a of history in this room.” and stable, and adding extra doors and conference call to take. As I walk up For the past year or so, Andrew has windows, was a labour of love. But the stairs from the boathouse, halfway been immersed in history, helping designing the stainless steel and timber up I stop and turn to face the harbour. produce an exhibition of his father’s kitchen, and main bathroom with its Ferries chug by. Powerboats and yachts work at the National Gallery of gorgeous dove grey mosaic tiles and crisscross the water, heading to moorings Victoria (NGV) in Melbourne. The sunken bath, was a favourite part. and docks. There’s a purposeful feel to show is held over three spaces: one “We went to huge lengths to restore the scene, an industriousness, an energy is darkened and lled with intricate what was here – you can feel the that is inspirational.  Designing the stainless painted miniatures; one is bright weatherboards and the history within Klippel/Klippel: Opus 2008, The Ian Potter steel and timber white and contains small bronzes; them. This place breathes to me.” Centre, National Gallery of Victoria ends kitchen was a favourite a third holds a single monumental The main room of the boathouse dates November 2. A new exhibition of Robert part of renovating the boathouse. A Matthew sculpture only. Andrew composed from 1883. There are two tales which Klippel’s wooden sculpture, Assemblages, Johnson canvas hangs an accompanying soundscape. The came with the building: one, it was opens at Anna Schwartz Gallery, 185 above a stairwell that result is exciting; a rich, multi- once used as a music room and two, it Flinders Lane, Melbourne this week, from leads to an open air deck on the edge of the water layered audiovisual experience. was once a poolroom. Andrew? “Well, October 30 – November 22

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We’re so taken with Burberry’s show-stopping True vintage • • •• • •• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• flagship (oh, those old-meets-new interiors!) STYLE ••••••••• •••••••••••• • ••••••••••••• • we just had to copycat the look •• •••• •• ••••••• • •• •• •••••••••••• • •••••• • • •• JACK •• • •• •• •• •••• ••• • ••• ••••••••• •• ••••••••••• • BURBERRY’S NEW •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• • •••••• SYDNEY STORE (LOVE IT!) •••• ••••• •••• • • •••••• ••••• • •••••••• ••••••• •••• Signature scent: •• •••• ••••• • •• •••••• •••••• •• •••• •• •••• • • •••• Burberry’s Crocus (left) and Hearth • ••• ••••• • • •• •• ••••••••• •••••••••• •••••••• ••• •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •••••••• • ••••••••••••••••••••••••• ••••••• • •••••••••••• •••• ••••••••••••• •••••••• Caramel ••••••••••••••• ••••••••••••••• • •••••••••••• • ••• • • •••• •••• •• ••••• • •• •• ••••• ••• •••••• • • • • •••• ••••••••••••••••••••••• ••••••••••••• •• •• •••• ••• •••••• •••••••••• •••• •••• •••••••••••••••••••• www.thecountrytrader.com.au; • •••••••••••• •• www.chippendalerestorations.com.au; CRUSH • ••••••••••••• THE HERO www.authenticlightingandhardware.com CHRISTOPHER Bailey has done it again. With his incredible eye for design, he’s transformed a grand 1920s heritage-listed bank into Accent scents a contemporary palace. We’re in love with the Future ready IT’S no secret that Christopher Bailey loves •• • •••••••••••••••••••••••• Burberry colour palette: luscious creams and his music. He mentors young Brit bands and • •••••••••••••••••••••••••••• caramels with signature hints of black, white values quality sound. He also believes in a pop ••••••••••• •••••••••••••••••••••• and oxblood, updated with pops of colour. luxe of bright colour to make neutrals sing. •• • •••• •• •••••••• ••••••••••••• •• •• It’s the Burberry check deconstructed – Combine the best of both philosophies and • ••• •• ••••• ••••• • • •••••••••••••• •••••••••• •••• warm-toned marble columns and benches, • • •••••••••••••••• connect your iPod to the new Tangent DAB ••• •• •••••••• ••••••••••••••••••• high ceilings painted in high-gloss vanilla, the ••• ••• • •• • • •••• • 2go portable retro-style radio in apple green • ••••••••••••••••••••• •••• pale marble floor, the original bronze doors, ••• •••••• •••• •• or baby blue, priced from $549. • ••• •• •• ••• •••• ••••• •••• ••••• the fabulous pendant lights, all lovingly restored. Or amp up the 21st-century sex appeal of • ••••••••••••••••••••••••• Inside this magnificent stage set, the store your living space with our latest screen crush: • •••••••• ••••••••••••••••••• seems to float. Colourful scarves spill out of LG’s super-slick LW6500. The cinema 3D TV •• ••••• ••••••••••••••• smoke-glass shelving, set into genuine marble launched this week and the “magic remote” • •••••• •••••• • ••• ••••• •• ••• • deposit tables. Clothes, bags and shoes are means you’re a click away from movies, apps ••• •••••• •• ••••• •• ••••• ••••• • •••• contained within old bank teller stations. and internet shopping. The cinema experience •• •••• • • ••••• ••• • • •• ••• •• •••••• Add video walls, touchscreen technology, provides smoother, crisper images from ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• new looks streamed direct from the global virtually any perspective. Fashion TV from ••••• ••••••••• •• headquarters in London, an enhanced www.burberry.com every angle? How soon can it be delivered? sound system and iPod docks, and you’ve got The new store = now. www.lg.com.au; www.syntec.com.au a vision for the future. Old + new breathes life into the magni cent Burberry, 343 George Street, Sydney heritage building (02 8296 8588) Sleek pieces Smoke and mirrors Sheridan’s ne from Glas Italia• • • •• • ••••••••••••••••••••••••••• traditional-twist • ••• • • •• •••••••••• •••• ••••••• ••• ••••• ••• damask and •• ••••• • •••• ••••••• •• • ••• • •••• ••• • Dream on plush towels •• •••• • ••••••••••••••••••••• •• •••••• • •••••••••••••••••••••• •••••••• • •••••• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •••••••••••••••• ••••••••• ••••• •••• ••••• • ••• ••••••••••••••••••••••• ••••••••••••• •••••• •••••••••••••••••••• ••••••••••••••• •••••• ••••••••••••• •••• ••••••••••••••••• •• •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •• • •••••• ••••••• ••• •••• ••••••• • ••• •• • ••• • •••• • •••••••••• ••• ••••• •••••••• •••••••• •••••••••••••••••••••••••• •••••••••• ••••••• •••••••••••••••• •• ••••• • • •••• ••••• •• • • • ••••• • •• ••• •••••••••••••• •••• • • •••••••••••••••• ••••• •• ••• •••••• • •• • • • • •• •• •• • • • • ••• ••••••••• •• • ••••• • •• ••• ••• ••••

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MEET THE DESIGNER WHO’S CREATED A LITTLE BIT OF Our islandCAPRI IN BALI. RESORT-CHIC STYLE,home WRITES SUSIE BURGE PHOTOGRAPHY CHRIS COURT STYLING SIBELLA COURT

T’S A happy villa!” says Elissa Aarons – in a restored vintage peacock Coleman of the home she shares chair as our photographer nishes setting The light and airy villa Iwith husband Cristiano Ciciarelli up. Neil Diamond plays on the stereo. is a deliberate contrast “Everything seems to be stone and From time to time the couple break into to traditional Balinese heavy wood in Bali and I guess because song. Ciciarelli’s a fan due to a recent interiors; personal touches include cushions made of Cristiano’s Italian background we concert – hilariously, he’s only just with fabric from Elissa loved the Capri, Sardinia feel.” learning the words. Coleman’s designs (far left), Their house, with open-plan living Australian designer Coleman has family photos and vintage areas framing a pool, is a delicious mix lived in Bali for seven years now. Her magazines (below) of retro Mediterranean holiday glamour internationally recognised clothing and contemporary style. Yellow and line (featuring select handpainted white striped sunloungers invite you prints and beadwork in a sexy, beachy to recline, gin and tonic in hand, style) is produced in a factory locally underneath matching yellow umbrellas. and created from her workspace at one Take a dip when the heat gets the better end of the living room. It’s a “girlie of you, rinse under the outdoor shower but graphic” area of coloured pencils, and dry off with a Missoni towel. paintbrushes, sketchbooks, fabric I leaf through vintage magazines swatches, a mannequin and a rack of (70s Italian Vogue, Condé Nast Traveller: the new season range of dresses and Choose The Right Cruise!) while perched tops in cotton and silk. at the bar. I consider settling back with She and Ciciarelli (previously a picture book – Poolside With Slim a successful advertising art director,  LIVING IT UP

plants ourish in the tropical climate – the gardens of Bali are amazing. There’s a strong interior design element on the island too, seen in new buildings, renovations and inventive contemporary lighting, furniture, ttings. Coleman grew up with a love of good design. She’s part of the Perth-based Empire homewares family. Most of the key pieces of furniture in the new villa are her designs – the Miami 50s-style bar stools, the based in Rome) met at iconic sunloungers, the white wicker-framed beachfront bar Ku De Ta when couches and handmade cushions, the Ciciarelli was on holiday. The stripy beanbags. These were made in good-looking, thirtysomething pair the Empire factory in Java. married last year. They now work When they moved in to their home together on the Elissa Coleman line, several months ago, all the walls were with Coleman in charge of creative and painted what Ciciarelli calls “Sylvester Ciciarelli managing the business side. Stallone, military green”. The place had Recently her husband has also branched an entirely different feel: khaki walls, out into designing menswear, under his seal-grey polished concrete oors, dark own name, a range of smart classics in grey terrazzo kitchen and bathroom. monochrome. Very George Clooney. Even the pool and garden walls were Coleman’s workspace They now divide their time “between painted khaki green. is ultra-feminine; the Bali, Rome and Perth, depending on Now the villa is complete, thanks ‘8’ painting is her own the time of year”. Their Bali villa is to the miracle of white paint, creative creation (below left); the villa is a half-hour located in Canggu, the new fashionable customised furniture and clever styling. moped ride from expat area, about a half-hour drive from Think a frangipani tree growing in Seminyak; a Veronique the shops and nightlife of Seminyak. It’s a vase of water, a piece of fan coral, Aonzo picture sets off 50s-style bar stools a bit Byron Bay, a bit Margaret River. handpainted cushions, an antique bird (above right) “Very village,” says Ciciarelli. “Lots of cage, a whitewashed terracotta horse, artworks by Veronique Aonzo mixed “ e villa is complete thanks to in with family photos (the ones of Cicarelli’s father are gorgeous). It’s the miracle of white paint, creative light-lled, self-consciously glamorous. customised furniture and clever styling” And deliciously personal. Italians, Australians. Lots of fashion designers, lots of artists, lots of surfers.” Maybe I’m tired after yesterday’s ight, but I suddenly nd myself suffering a case of LE – lifestyle envy. Mind you, it’s not that unusual to be struck by lifestyle envy in Bali: the lovely spirituality of the local people; the little Hindu offerings left in gardens, temples, doorways, on the street – woven bamboo frond baskets containing burning incense, fresh owers, and such random items as a foil-wrapped toffee, or a Jatz biscuit. Apart from the spirit world, earthly 90 www.grazia.com.au 91 LIVING IT UP

The airy living area features adjustable bamboo blinds rather than windows

ART MEETS SURF CULTURE MEETS FASHION WITHIN DESIGNER expansive gestures and bucketloads Punk designs – hits of raw, masculine energy. His social stores in August. GIVENICHOLAS US MORLEY’S BALI HOME, Morley! WRITES SUSIE BURGE enthusiasm is generous: when we He also designs PHOTOGRAPHY CHRIS COURT STYLING SIBELLA COURT catch up again at his house later in jewellery: think the day, he’s ordered lunch for us chunky silver and HERE’S a laid-back all from the nearby Hotel Tugu. skull rings. He’s Byron Bay-meets-Bali feel Tempting dishes crowd the table. a photographer too Thappening in Echo Beach, “The best nasi campur in the world,” (“fashion, portraits, Canguu. I meet with amboyant he grins. “Bento box, Bali style!” whatever”) and he’s fashion designer Nicholas Morley at Australian-born Nicholas has lived famously linked to Sticky Fingers, his local cafe and bar. in Bali for 10 years. Before that he another hot fashion The place is full of expat creative lived in New York for eight. He’s designer, Alice McCall. types, the sun is shining and designed special one-off tour pieces They have just started good-looking surfers wander up and for the Rolling Stones, AC/DC and an interiors line, The Reunion, down the track to the beach. Blondie. His 1999 label, Buddhist available at Orson & Blake in Sydney’s Just around the corner, Nicholas’s Punk, set a new benchmark for T-shirts Surry Hills. Nicholas and Alice have a shop picks up the surf element and worldwide, and his signature fusion of daughter, Wilde Rose, and divide their adds a rock-star edge: The Boneyard rock, punk and hippie Eastern time between Sydney and Bali, is lled with skull-and-crossbones philosophy continues with the fashion although Canguu is their main base, graphics mixed with bright colours, line Nicholas X Morley, launched in and they live, work and design in their Quirky touches: the Bustier dress, $169; bag, playful slogans and 80s bling. 2007, “a label that blends the Bali studio. Nicholas’s other daughter, glossy chairs designed $100; bone ring, $19 Nicholas outside his Like the clothes and jewellery bluntness of rock’n’roll with a gallows Grace, lives with them too. by the couple, and All Nicholas X Morley shop, The Boneyard Alice’s surfboard portrait for Sportsgirl he designs, Nicholas has a compelling humour,” he says. A new range for He took a 40-year lease on the home (www.sportsgirl.com.au) presence. He also has a big laugh, Sportsgirl – a take on early Buddhist three years ago. It was a typical old  82 www.grazia.com.au 83 LIVING IT UP

1. 2.

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Balinese style before renovation. “I just wanted a white house and to ll it with colour,” he explains. The oor is polished concrete decorated with Persian rugs. The 4. 5. living space zings with pop colour, tribal hints and cool retro classics. The glossy red dining chairs are hand-tooled and enamelled, and nished with vintage Indonesian fabrics. The tomato-coloured modular sofa is a 70s design and paired with a relaxed daybed with mismatched cushions. A row of surfboards takes up one corner. Another board is a gift from Surfer’s paradise MIX AND MATCH COLOURS AND TEXTURES FOR Nicholas to Alice – a portrait of her by Vali Myers, printed on a surfboard EASTERN CHARM WITH A COASTAL FEEL by iconic board shaper Dain Thomas. The white walls provide an American warehouse-style gallery backdrop for paintings by Australians Ben Frost, Reg Mombassa and Anthony Lister, plus Banksy, Vietnamese pop artists, and photographs by Stephen Dupont and friend Hugh Stewart. The pink knives are by Warhol, and those familiar dots? “Damien Hirst – a fake Damien Hirst,” says Nicholas. “We used to say we’d hang a texta down 6. beside it for him to sign,” he laughs, explaining that Hirst’s wife, Maia, is 7. a friend. “And last visit he did sign it – so I guess it’s not fake anymore!” Outside, the swimming pool is a cool blue rectangle. A large pot of crimson bougainvillea sits on the deck. Big, sculptural traveller palms are dotted P along one side of the house. “We wanted to keep the garden really simple, really minimal.” Then again, Nicholas con des, he and Alice have been Concrete oors and stark C H RIS J ANS E N / AC 1. Vittorio Bonacina Gala armchair, $6853 (de de ce, www.dedece.com) 2. Beacon Lighting Fijian fan, $269 (www.beaconlighting. walls act as blank canvases com.au) 3. The Reunion cushion, $180 (Orson & Blake, 02 8399 2525) 4. Freedom Bateman dipping dish, $3.95 and side plate, talking about doing a huge All You Need to the couple’s energetic, $7.95 (1300 135 588) 5. Ikea Persisk oriental rug, $999 (www.ikea.com) 6. Art On Demand at Foto Riesel made-to-order art prints, from $135 (www.aod.fotoriesel.com.au) 7. King Furniture Jazz sofa, $3600 (www.kingfurniture.com.au) Is Love mural on the pool wall… provocative artworks STILL - LIF E: 84 www.grazia.com.au 85 CastleFURNITURE ACE MARK TUCKEY AND FAMILY OPEN THEIR IDYLLIC PITTWATER HOME TO SUSIE BURGE. PHOTOGRAPHED BY MIKKEL VANG. INTERIORS EDITING BY SIBELLA COURT

Take a classic weatherboard beachside house, add a good-looking couple with two golden-haired daughters. Combine with dogs, cats, a couple of chickens, a beautiful old wooden boat, surfboards, kayaks and a handful of vintage cars. Mix well and what do you get? Home and Away? No, something real: the Tuckey family recipe for living. “Our friends call us Noah’s ark — two cats, two dogs, two chickens,” laughs extrovert surfer-boy-adult Mark Tuckey. He grew up in Sydney’s northern beaches and returned to the area in 2008, after living and working in Melbourne for 20 years. “I wanted the kids to have the upbringing that I had,” he explains. Mark and wife Louella rented for a year in nearby Whale Beach while looking to buy, wanting to get to know the area properly and make sure they had made the right decision to move from inner-city Melbourne. For English-born Louella, the change was a dream come true. “I read an article on Pittwater once when I was living in London and thought, I’d love to live there one day,” she confides with a grin. They found their new home last June, an original timber beach house with an Alex Popov circular addition, a stone’s throw from Clareville Beach. The views are serenely Clockwise from top: Mark Tuckey, atop beautiful: a stillwater bay with boats his vintage Porsche, wears Gucci jacket, bobbing at moorings, framed by $1920, shirt, $710, and pants, $710; banksias, pines, hibiscus and the Louella in Paul & Joe top, $940; Toni Maticevski skirt, made to order, price branches of a large jacaranda in the on application; Tom Binns necklace, $xxx, front garden. “There are so many things from Christine; Miu Miu shoes, $xxx, that are old and established about holding Indigo, who wears Megan Park the house,” says Louella, explaining dress, $198, and necklace, $55; Chilli wears Megan Park dress, $165, and that they’ve not made major changes necklace, $55. Styled by Marina Afonina. since moving in. “You could say I’ve

997 BAZAAR JUNE/JULY 2010 www.harpersbazaar.com.au 998 Clockwise from below left: Louella in Prada coat, $xxxx; Alexander McQueen shoes, $1295, from Miss Louise; Tom Binns bracelets, $xxx each, from Christine; Cutler and Gross dusted it down,” says Mark. “Everything sunglasses, $575, from Christine, needed maintenance.” with Mark, in Gucci shirt, $590, Louis Vuitton shorts, $xxx, and Mark is a hands-on kind of guy. He shoes, $xxx; Cutler and Gross tinkers with things, fixes things, and, sunglasses, $575, from Christine, more famously, designs and manufactures at sea on the family boat, Barny. Mark’s woodwork designs feature things. He started the Mark Tuckey throughout the Pittwater home. furniture business with $200 and never looked back. Today there’s a workshop/ showroom in Fitzroy, Melbourne, a storage facility for recycled timber in nearby Footscray and a Sydney store in Newport, just 10 minutes’ drive from home. His trademark is simple lines, generous sizing, creative shapes and joinery, all made out of big, sensual pieces of recycled timber, finished raw or soaped to give a bleached, beachy feel. It’s a distinctive look, but not a static one. The range is constantly evolving. “I love that stuff — designing. Like, ‘What shall we do now?’” says Louella, who has a degree in furniture design and a background in styling. (She came to Australia 12 years ago to set up a Conran shop in Melbourne’s iconic Georges, and stayed.) “Every six months or so we try to put some proper time into new concepts,” she says, adding that she carries a notebook everywhere for ideas and sketches for the upcoming Mark Tuckey Homewares line. They are currently prototyping bed linen, dishes, bowls, rugs and outdoor pots as part of the new range. “Hopefully, over the next year, we can put it together,” she smiles. The couple met at a party. It was love at first sight for Mark; not quite so for Louella, who had a boyfriend at the time. “I pretty much had to chase her for a long time,” he confesses, laughing. Louella agrees. “But once we got together, that was it — 24/7. And within a few months we were saying: ‘Let’s have a baby’,” she says. That baby was Chilli, now an adorable blonde-haired three-year-old. Soon she was joined by equally cute sister Indigo, now two. The family have what Louella terms “a really good balance”. She works half a week and spends the rest with the girls. The shop is close by, so Mark can be at home “a fair bit”. Work dovetails seamlessly with life. The interior of the “Our friends call us Newport store echoes the interior of their home — the fabulous chunky furniture, Noah’s ark — two cats, the palette of neutral tones and natural two dogs, two chickens … textures enlivened by splashes of bright colour, unusual lamps, energetic paintings I wanted the kids to have and sculptures by artist friends David Bromley, Mark Schaller and Joost. There’s the upbringing I had.” a real sense of warmth and flair to the style, melding creativity, family, friends – Mark Tuckey and an ecologically sustainable ethos; embracing the hospitable, casual feel of Australian coastal living.

999 BAZAAR JUNE/JULY 2010 www.harpersbazaar.com.au 1000 Clockwise from above: the Tuckeys’ At home, the front garden has plenty of For our second interview Louella is kitchen and the children’s bedroom room for striking outdoor sculptures, a dressed in jeans, T-shirt and submarine- proudly display the girls’ artwork. swing chair to hang from the massive yellow Birkenstocks. “We threw yellow Indigo, in Megan Park dress, $165, and necklace, $55, and Chilli, in jacaranda, and for tea parties to be set up into the branding of the shop and Megan Park dress, $198, and on the lawn. Round the back of the family I got really into it,” she says, laughing. necklace, $55, prepare for battle. home, there’s another lawn, a pool and Her wavy blonde hair is pulled back Louella, wearing Hermès jacket, $4405; Prada top, $xxx; a vegie patch. Dogs, cats and chickens from her face and she’s makeup-free, By Malene Birger pants, $440, from Sarah and Cup Cup (named by Chilli relaxed and glowing with health. For our Christensen Copenhagen; after her clucking — “cup-cup, cup-cup”) photo shoot a week earlier, she was in Christian Louboutin shoes, $xxxx, from David Jones; Erickson Beamon roam freely. Inside, paintings and art tall Gucci heels, Yves Saint Laurent earrings, $695, from Christine; glass mingle with kids’ drawings and eveningwear and glamorous makeup. Yves Saint Laurent bracelet, $1495, various random collections, including After her experience in editorial and from Cultstatus, and Mark, in Louis Vuitton shirt, $xxx; Gucci pants, shells, stones and a colourful array of advertising styling, being on the other $710, outside the Alex Popov addition old-fashioned bowling pins. side of the camera “was like doing a to their beach house. In this portfolio: Offshore, directly opposite the house, complete flip”, she says. “I saw 20 pairs hair and makeup by Claire Thomson at Network Agency+Management. See boat Barny is moored. She’s a lovely of shoes with heels like that … ” [she Buylines for details and stockists. 42-foot wooden Griffin, built in the ’70s. pulls her hands 15 centimetres apart] Mark grew up with boats, and he wanted “and I went, ‘You know, I don’t wear the same experience for his children. On heels’,” adding that she loved the Akira the beach, the girls can collect shells, red dress she wore on the boat, and the trawl the shoreline for driftwood and long skirt, “even though you would have jellyfish, and run along the sand in search needed an assistant to walk in it. It was of the fairy tree — “with a little door,” so different — like playing dress-ups, Indigo tells me, giggling insistently. just really good fun.”

1001 BAZAAR JUNE/JULY 2010 www.harpersbazaar.com.au 1002 The living room in Wendy Whiteley’s Sydney home, hung with works by former husband Brett, including The Crucifixion triptych, a tribute to the late sculptor Joel Elenberg.

The house that

built

THE MUSE TO THE LATE ARTIST BRETT WHITELEY GIVES SUSIE BURGE A TOUR OF THE MAGICAL SYDNEY HOME THEY SHARED AND THE AMAZING PUBLIC GARDEN SHE CREATED. PHOTOGRAPHED BY CHRIS COURT. INTERIOR STYLING BY SIBELLA COURT

220 BAZAAR APRIL 2010 www.harpersbazaar.com.au 221 Favourite spot: the zinc-coated kitchen table, flooded with light. f a picture tells a thousand words, volumes have been spoken about this house. Brett Whiteley’s most famous paintings were inspired and created here: the ultramarine views from the balcony complete with the Harbour Bridge at the top left corner; the Matisse- like interiors where the harbour imbues the room and surrounds curvy shapes of mirror, naked buttocks and breasts with an oasis of blue. The shapes, of course, belong to Wendy Whiteley — wife, lover and muse to former husband, Brett, for more than three decades. “It’s a very magical bay, Lavender Bay,” she says. “When we first came here hardly anyone knew about it.” Wendy and Brett (with young daughter, Arkie) rented one floor of the old Federation house on Sydney’s lower North Shore long before the city’s obsession with real estate and water views. In 1974 they were able to buy the whole building and the Above: a classic Whiteley gradual process of renovation began. pen-and-ink view of Lavender “We started when we were a bit pissed Bay hangs over a cosy nook in the renovated basement. one night and someone — it was one of Below: the spare room, the [Australian painting dynasty] Boyds, complete with French actually — hit the wall with a hammer,” Art Deco bedroom suite under Brett Whiteley’s Whiteley says frankly, going on to The Palm, Lavender Bay. explain that they had to stop knocking things down and have a steel support bar installed before making the archways. They cut a hole in the ceiling and added a ladder to the bedroom upstairs. The rooms were once heavy and dark. Now, years later, the whole house is filled with breathtaking light. The walls and floors are white, with wide recycled boards painted and waxed smooth. Through windows and doors open to the breeze, the view of the harbour is framed by the branches of a giant Moreton Bay fig. Spaces have been enlarged, extra windows put in. The ladder has made way for a spiral staircase and

Whiteley, signature headpiece in place, in the unique public garden she created.

222 BAZAAR APRIL 2010 www.harpersbazaar.com.au 223 A freestanding tub in the main bedroom references the famous Brett Whiteley Bathroom series.

eminently practical elevator (housed in a touches such as fresh flowers and birds’ tower, making for a gorgeously romantic nests. “Brett used to collect birds’ eggs exterior) that connects all four floors. and birds’ nests,” she says. “They are Attention to fine detail and instinctive amazing, aren’t they?” In her bedroom flair with colour, texture and proportion is a freestanding bathtub. Poetic pencil characterise the seemingly effortless studies from the early 1960s — Brett’s grace of the interior. Flashes of silver, steel famous series of Wendy bathing — are and glass contrast with timber antiques hung in various places in the house. It’s and generous furniture. Everything has a unique personal vision, a sensitive a story behind it. “I very rarely just go combination of old and new, an appealing to a shop,” says Whiteley emphatically. mix of art and utility, diverse collections One of her favourite spots to sit is at the and simply lovely things, such as the kitchen table — she found it discarded on range of blue and white china that the street and gave it a new lease of life includes Brett Whiteley ceramics and with a coat of zinc courtesy of the team stacks of Chinese bowls. who were doing her roof at the time. The Today Whiteley is dressed in white, carved wooden lion in the living room an exotic piece of fabric wound around was discovered in a ditch in Bali. The her head in a turban, chunky bangles pair of distorting mirrors came from The and rings. Tendrils of dark hair frame an Country Trader, sourced from a funfair. expressive face lit by brilliant blue eyes. “They’re lovely and moody and at night She’s famously stylish (headwear is her they are spectacular,” she says. trademark and each season she changes There are vintage beaded handbags over her extensive wardrobe of hats), but From top left: Whiteley’s late daughter, from France and London, striking no slave to fashion. “I’ve never really Arkie, as a child; birds’ nests, something Brett liked to collect; bookshelves house textiles from Turkey and Morocco, tribal been into fashion except a few people an extensive library downstairs. masks from Africa and Indonesia, classic like Yohji [Yamamoto], whom I love,” This page: the home office eyrie French industrial storage and humble she says, voice throaty with cigarette looks beyond the trees to the harbour.

224 BAZAAR APRIL 2010 www.harpersbazaar.com.au 225 The spiral staircase that replaced the ladder to the romantic upstairs bedroom.

smoke. She goes on to declare that New once, you’ve seen it.” And then there’s York is the best place for shopping. “I’m the garden ... addicted to Bergdorf’s.” Fourteen years ago, Whiteley began to The subject of shopping in New York tackle the daunting expanse of rubbish leads to anecdotes about the notoriously and weeds that covered a substantial bohemian Chelsea Hotel. Wendy, Brett tract of land owned by the State Rail and toddler Arkie lived there in the Authority between her house and the late 1960s. Their neighbours were Janis disused railway line that runs along Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. the harbour foreshore. She started on “[Composer] George Kleinsinger had impulse, and she didn’t stop. “It takes a a zoo — toucans, giant turtles,” she long time, when you’ve been an addict, to recounts. “We had the roof — Shirley establish something with your daughter. Clarke the filmmaker was down the She was so thrilled, she was just so proud other end. We had exotic birds; someone of me. So I just kept going. I had a bit of The Whiteleys originally rented one floor of the had made this amazing garden,” she money and that’s what I spent it on.” Lavender Bay home, before adds. “We’d be running down 21st Now the garden is lush and green, buying the entire building. Street going — ‘Christ, there’s Star!’,” a mixture of lawns and abundant she laughs, explaining that the avian plantings, dry-stone terraces, maze-like inhabitants frequently escaped. paths winding up and down. People With a friend, Whiteley opened a shop have picnics here, get married here. on 21st Street. They initially stocked Brett and Arkie’s ashes are buried in an “I used to make clothes out of Marimekko fabric, have bare feet, paint all over me — my mother would be coming out of David Jones and she’d see me and cross the road.”

furs from the 1930s and ’40s. “Arkie was undisclosed place, trees growing above. dressed in black fur from head to toe.” “The trees keep the life cycle going, Whiteley is a confessed wild child. She and give me a spot to contemplate,” says left school at 15 against her mother’s Whiteley softly. It’s a unique personal wishes, enrolled in art school and got a garden, yet a public park, welcoming all. job in a Kings Cross, Sydney, coffee shop. “I loved The Secret Garden as a child.” “There were terrific little old-fashioned She adds, “I wanted to create a place coffee shops in Kings Cross in those people could go and just be quiet … also, days,” she says, grinning. “I used to make I see kids go down there and get excited clothes out of Marimekko fabric, have by it, making their own games from piles A Joel Elenberg bare feet, paint all over me — my mother of sticks, searching for fairies.” sculpture in would be coming out of David Jones and The garden is on its ninth visitors’ the garden. she’d see me and she’d cross the road,” book. Whiteley also receives thank you she says, laughing affectionately and notes in her mailbox, including letters showing me a photograph of the three from children. She employs two full-time generations, arms around each other — gardeners, Corrado and Ruben, and the her mother, Arkie and herself. garden now falls under the umbrella of The house resonates with personal North Sydney Council. “Still, when I histories. Beautiful actor Arkie died go down there I get demented when I see tragically at the age of 37 from adrenal a weed.” The garden is a living, breathing, gland cancer. Brett preceded her in 1992 growing work of art. “In its own way after a heroin overdose. Wendy herself it’s a gift,” she says. “For me, it’s like remains passionately involved with the making a drawing.” Brett Whiteley Studio in Sydney’s Surry Wendy Whiteley was awarded Hills, run in conjunction with the Art an OAM in 2009 for service to the Gallery of New South Wales. Works from community through the establishment her house go to the studio and vice versa; and maintenance of a public garden at there are education programs; pieces Lavender Bay, and as a supporter of the from the AGNSW’s collection alternate visual arts. The Brett Whiteley Studio is The view from the house with privately owned pieces. located at 2 Raper Street, Surry Hills, New over the open space “We change the shows all the time,” South Wales, open Saturdays and Sundays, Whiteley turned into a she says. “It’s not just if you’ve seen it (02) 9225 1881; www.brettwhiteley.org. harbourside wonderland.

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