EXHIBITION
Make Believe
2025
VENUE
State Library Victoria
YEAR
Make Believe: Encounters with Misinformation at State Library Victoria was an immersive exhibition examining how bias, authority and belief shape the spread of misinformation. Studio Peter King's 3D design establishes a spatial framework that unifies four distinct case studies within a single, psychologically charged architectural sequence.
The exhibition is organised around a central chamber from which four case study rooms radiate — a transitional space that orients visitors before they enter each differentiated gallery environment. This chamber plays with architectural illusion in the same spirit as the exhibition's subject: an enfilade of columns is exaggerated through a mirrored backdrop that visually extends the room, historic column pediments are reimagined as furniture bases, and a freestanding aluminium canopy integrates colour-controlled lighting that subtly shifts the hue of the space in a calibrated sequence.
Each case study room was conceived as its own spatial condition, responding to a different artist's concept, collection material and curatorial narrative — from a mural-wrapped environment confronting advertising archives, to a studio-archive hybrid questioning photographic authenticity, densely layered cabinets interrogating medical misinformation, and a video-led chamber amplifying censored literary histories.
Material palette, enclosure, lighting intensity and display typologies shift between rooms while remaining anchored within a coherent architectural framework, with moments of spatial compression and release guiding visitors through complex subject matter.
Strict heritage and engineering constraints prohibited any structural alteration to the room's columns, ceilings, floors and walls. In response, the design introduced a freestanding aluminium canopy, mirrored plane and modular furniture system entirely independent of the historic fabric — a fully reversible architectural layer that transforms perception, circulation and use of the space without compromising its conservation requirements.
The exhibition design was conceived in collaboration with U-P and developed in close collaboration with the projects curators and artists. The design integrates graphic identity, custom wallpaper, bespoke joinery and precision mounting into a single unified interior system.
Client: State Library Victoria
Curators: Linda Short and Georgia Goud
3D Exhibition Design: Studio Peter King in collaboration with Mono Studio
2D Exhibition Design & Art Direction: U-P
Audio Visual: Regine Abos, Jorge Arreola & State Library Victoria
Fabrication: Synthesis & Prop Art
Painting: Flys Alone
Lighting: MEGS Lighting
Multimedia Installation: Creative Technology Projects
Mounts: Christian Bishop Studio
Graphics: Decently Exposed and Design To Print
Photography: Eugene Hyland and Peter Forster courtesy of SLV, Will Neil courtesy of U-P
“The exhibition bears the hallmarks of uber-designer Peter King. The entrance of the library’s Keith Murdoch Gallery has been transformed into a nerve-rattlingly bright gateway, with neon-lit geometric columns and an arched pediment, a nod to the library’s classical façade and the sense of authority it is meant to induce. One passes through this gateway into a central space that cleverly mimics the sensorial assault of the online world – overhead lines of neon lights change colour from purple to green to blue to white, giving the space an unsettling glow.
A double row of screens shaped like giant smartphones appears to extend to infinity, reflected by a warped mirrored wall. Before each screen is a plump armchair where one can sit and watch as librarians, artists, doctors and other professionals talk about misinformation…
From this central space, four rooms branch off like online portals. Here artists and a group of doctors respond to objects from the library’s collection. Each room provides a “case study” related to the concept of misinformation..”