EXHIBITION
The Offbeat Sari
2026
VENUE
Bunjil Place Gallery
YEAR
Studio Peter King was engaged by Bunjil Place to design the Australian premiere of The Offbeat Sari, a touring exhibition originated by the Design Museum, London. Featuring more than 50 saris by India's most renowned designers, the exhibition explores the sari's cultural significance and contemporary reinvention across three chapters within the show.
Sustainability was central to the brief and carried through every material decision in the design, from structure through to finish, including the use of recycled materials such as SaveBoard and Uptex — both created from post-consumer waste products. The exhibition was also designed for touring, built to be dismantled and transported to its next venue.
Custom printed textiles, bespoke lighting and distinct colour were used to define each of the zones within the exhibition, giving each grouping of work its own identity while maintaining a coherent whole. The design also embraced unconventional planning solutions, reimagining an existing back-of-house storage space as a fully-realised exhibition gallery — expanding the show's footprint without conventional new-build construction.
Studio Peter King worked in partnership with Steph Yap Design to translate the graphic design language established in the original exhibition, adapting it to suit this new presentation.
Client: Bunjil Place in partnership with the Design Museum, London
Curated by: Priya Khanchandani
Exhibition Design: Studio Peter King in collaboration with Mono Studio and Steph Yap Design
Build: Prop Art
Lighting: Studio John Fish
Graphics: Decently Exposed, Print on Wood, Next State
Photography by Christian Capurro and Shuttermain courtesy of Bunjil Place
“Exhibition designer Peter King, who worked with Bunjil Place Gallery and London’s Design Museum, spent more than six months adapting the international exhibition for a local audience. Rather than simply replicating the original display, the team reconfigured the space into distinct zones and introduced new materials and design elements to suit the Casey setting. “Sometimes when things come across the world, they don’t always get the same level of attention. What we wanted to do was make it just as good, just as exciting, really build something that kind of kept true to the qualities that the designers in London had come up with, but make it a new version, something new for this audience…
Mr King said that the idea of transformation was at the heart of the show. “I went to a sari draping course, and I even put one on and learned how they work. I wanted to learn about them and understand how the idea of drapery, and just a single piece of cloth, wraps you up in six to nine meters. It’s amazing,” he said. “And to achieve so many different shapes with a simple textile, I guess that’s what inspired me with this. It’s like, how do we use a textile to make a new shape in this gallery?”