Michael Gittings p scaled
MAGAZINE · INTERVIEW

Michael Gittings

Michael Gittings is an Australian artist and designer based in regional Victoria whose multidisciplinary practice spans collectible design, sculpture, and public art. Grounded in a fascination with metalworking and hand fabrication, he creates sculptural furniture and objects that explore the expressive and structural potential of industrial processes through an intuitive, material-led approach.

Drawing inspiration from the natural environment and traditions of sculpture and decorative arts, Gittings develops works distinguished by their tactile surfaces, organic forms, and refined craftsmanship. Balancing experimentation with technical precision, his practice transforms metal into timeless pieces that blur the boundaries between art, design, and architecture.

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Interview

Where were you born and where are you from?

Albury, NSW, Australia, 1989.

What is your first memory connected to the art world?

I really had no connection to the art world till my mid-twenties, when I first started making things.

Have you always worked in the art/design field?

No, I am a tradesman.

What led you to design creation?

I naturally came about it through my interest in making things, starting with musical instruments, then on to furniture.

How would you describe your creative process and its influences?

I work intuitively, and most of my processes evolve out of play and experimentation. All of my work is influenced by the natural material world.

Could you describe a typical day of your work?

I don’t like having any specific routine, so my days are very varied and atypical. The common thread would be spending time welding.

Why did you choose the specific materials you work with?

I didn’t choose them, and I actually tried not to work with them, but it seems I have some natural propensity towards working with metals.

  • Novalis Side Table by Michael Gittings 6
  • Abandoned Console by Michael Gittings 3 scaled
What are the technical particularities of your creations?

Welding – it’s one of the most fascinating techniques of all time, in my opinion.

What advice could you give to beginning artists who would like to create sculptural design works?

Just make things; don’t spend too much time talking about them or looking for advice.

If your works had to belong to a design movement, how would you define it?

Probably the bastard love child of Art Nouveau and Surrealism.

What designers and artists have influenced you?

The early work of Ron Arad and Tom Dixon.

What contemporary designers do you appreciate?

I quite like the work of Vincenzo De Cotiis.

What contemporary artists, in any kind of art, have you been inspired by?

Anish Kapoor, Bram Bogart, Louise Bourgeois, George Baselitz, and Franz West!

If you had to summarize your creations in one word or sentence, what would it be?

Hopefully strange.

“Just make things; don’t spend too much time talking about them or looking for advice.”

The Questionnaire

The Questions

(The Proust Questionnaire is a set of questions answered by the French writer Marcel Proust.
Other historical figures who have answered confession albums are Oscar Wilde,
Karl Marx, Arthur Conan Doyle, Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Cézanne…)

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Being in the bush.

What is your greatest fear?

Having my hands cut off or losing my vision.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

Occasional spinelessness.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?

Insincerity.

Which living person do you most admire?

Tom Waits.

What is your greatest extravagance?

Time.

What is your current state of mind?

I’m currently sick with the flu.

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

Faith.

What is the quality you most like in a man?

Vulnerability.

What is the quality you most like in a woman?

Independence.

  • Michael Gittings_Eden Broadleaf Sidetable_Photography by Annika Kafcaloudis_5.jpg
  • Pitcher Plinth II by Michael Gittings 2
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

Maybe I swear too much.

Which talent would you most like to have?

Poetry.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

To not be colour blind.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Holding the high jump record in year six (probably, still standing!).

If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?

As a tree that would live to be very very old.

Where would you most like to live?

In the old sugar factory in the Melbourne docks.

What is your most treasured possession?

A piece of bone I found in Germany.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

Slavery.

What is your favorite occupation?

Coming up with names.

What is your most marked characteristic?

A scar in the shape of a smile on my right foot.

What do you most value in your friends?

Humour.

Who are your favorite writers?

Angela Carter, Thomas Pynchon, Vladimir Nabokov, Eimear McBride.

Who is your hero of fiction?

Bill Lee.

Which historical figure do you most identify with?

Markins.

Who are your heroes in real life?

Angela Carter.

What are your favorite names?

Augustus Longines and Herrera Nevada-Angelo.

What is it that you most dislike?

Repetition.

What is your greatest regret?

I once didn’t say the answer to a quiz question out of fear of being wrong and I was right.

How would you like to die?

In a complex and artistic self-made suicide machine. 

What is your motto?

Here’s to the few who will forgive what you do and to the fewer who don’t even care.

  • michael gittings philia x arc residency 11

“I work intuitively, and most of my processes evolve out of play and experimentation. All of my work is influenced by the natural material world.”

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