A three-metre-tall lamb, made from the wool of thousands of sheep, will be unveiled at the National Gallery of Victoria on October 3. The work, by Netherlands-based designer Christien Meindertsma, is this year’s Mecca x NGV Women in Design commission and aims to draw attention to, and find a solution for, wool waste – a growing issue in the textile industry.

Meindertsma’s work, First there was a mountain, is a larger-than-life sculpture of a newborn lamb standing for the first time. It shows how wool can be recycled and used as a replacement for potentially harmful synthetic materials like foam, rubber, plastic, polyester and polystyrene. Alongside the enormous mammal is the Wobot chair, an example of wool’s versatility and strength, and how it can be used for greater sustainability and circularity in furniture design. Hundreds of kilograms of wool from more than 2000 sheep, which would otherwise have been discarded, went into the project, in an effort to showcase the versatility of the fibre and its use in both decorative and functional design.

Both works have been produced using the Wobot, a pioneering robot Meindertsma has developed in partnership with Netherlands-based machine developer Tools for Technology especially for this commission. The Wobot produces a felted wool that, unlike more traditional production methods, uses no water. Circularity is embedded in the finished product: the felted wool it creates can be combed out to give it another life.

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Sustainability underpins Meindertsma’s work, which is in the collections of institutions such as MoMa New York and The Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Her book, Pig 05049, traces how every element of a pig is used after its death, while her completely biodegradable Flax Chair is made from a pioneering dry-needle felted flax.

“What I like about working with wool is it’s a textile material coming from a living animal and there’s sort of all these layers of history underneath,” says Meinderstma.

Meinderstma is the third designer to receive the annual Mecca x NGV Women in Design commission, which supports female designers to produce innovative, globally important new works for the NGV collection. For a country that first rode to prosperity on the sheep’s back, this innovation in wool production is a new contribution to a traditional Aussie industry, as well as art.

The 2024 Mecca x NGV Women in Design Commission is on display from October 3, 2024–February 2025 at NGV International. Entry is free.

ngv.vic.gov.au