Old Objects, New Conversations
Image credit: David Roche Gallery, Making Old New: DRG 10th Anniversary, Sam Roberts Photography. M.C. Elkin, workmaster, Malachite vase and cover, attributed to Carl Woerffel Manufactory, 1860-70, St Petersburg. Gray Hawk, Return, 2026.
One of Australia’s most beloved house museums, the David Roche Gallery in Adelaide, is celebrating its 10th birthday. Home to one of Australia’s most extraordinary private collections of art, antiques and design, the gallery was established by collector and philanthropist David Roche. The collection of more than 3,000 objects spans European decorative arts, paintings, sculpture, furniture and fashion from the 17th to the 20th centuries, all housed within historic Fermoy House, Roche’s original home. It offers visitors a rare glimpse into his eclectic and highly personal collecting vision, alongside a separate gallery space dedicated to temporary exhibitions and engagement with contemporary practice.
Making Old New a new free exhibition marking this important milestone. Presented in partnership with JamFactory, another South Australian icon and one of Australia’s leading centres for contemporary craft and design, brings together acclaimed practitioners and emerging alumni from across its studios. Drawing inspiration from objects in the David Roche Collection, each artist has created a new work that reinterprets the past through a contemporary lens, highlighting the enduring influence of David Roche’s legacy and Adelaide’s significant contribution to Australian craft and design.
For Making Old New, twenty South Australian artists and designers were invited to spend time with the Roche collection and create new works in response to objects that appealed to them. The result is an exhibition that is less homage and more an exploration of how collections continue to generate meaning outside their original context.
The timing feels apt. Over the past decade, David Roche Gallery has quietly transformed from one of Adelaide's best-kept secrets into a significant player in Australia's cultural landscape. When it opened in 2016, visitors primarily encountered the collection through guided tours of Fermoy House, stepping into the highly personal world of one of Australia's most passionate collectors. Since then, the institution has evolved into something more expansive: a gallery that uses decorative arts as a starting point for broader conversations about history, design and contemporary culture.
Director Robert Reason sees this evolution as central to the gallery's success.
"When we first opened ten years ago, we were only open for private tours," he says. "It was a lovely way to introduce people to the collection and see how audiences responded. But over time, we realised there was an opportunity to do much more through exhibitions, public programs and collaborations."
That shift has allowed the gallery to establish a distinct identity within Australia's museum landscape. Rather than treating decorative arts as static historical artefacts, its exhibitions increasingly position them as living sources of inspiration and inquiry.
The collaboration with JamFactory feels particularly resonant in this regard. Both institutions share a commitment to craftsmanship, material knowledge and artistic excellence, albeit from different ends of the historical spectrum. Bringing them together creates a conversation between makers separated by centuries but united by an obsession with objects and the stories they carry.
Image credit: Nick Mount, Canes, 2026. David Roche Collection, Canes. Connor Patterson Photography.
The unpredictable and unique quality of the artists' responses in Making Old New is illuminating. Rather than gravitating towards the collection's grandest or most celebrated works, many were drawn to quieter objects: utilitarian vessels, decorative curiosities and fragments of domestic life. Their choices reveal as much about contemporary concerns as they do about historical taste, drawing inspiration from everything from a Russian malachite vase and a Louis Moinet l’Aine clock to prisoner-of-war straw boxes and a copper imperial peck measure.
“Some artists were inspired by celebrated highlights of the collection, while others gravitated towards more modest objects that spoke to their own interests and creative practices,” says Reason. “It’s fascinating to see the different ways artists have interpreted these works and translated historical objects into contemporary craft and design.”
Ceramist and JamFactory Lifetime Honouree Jeff Mincham AM reimagines a 19th-century bronze of Sisyphus in his work The Sisyphus Syndrome – Learn to Love Your Rock. Ceramist Honor Freeman takes inspiration from a delicate bronze sculpture of a fallen sparrow, casting in porcelain an ornate cowfish discovered washed ashore during South Australia’s recent algal bloom. Meanwhile, jeweller and object maker Polly Dymond responds to a rare 18th-century Derby porcelain vase by electroforming salvaged polystyrene and found ceramics, transforming discarded materials into objects of unexpected value and beauty.
Image credit: Honor Freeman, Sick-sea/Sea-sick, 2026. Connor Patterson Photography.
Reason says the selections often surprised him.
"That's always the fascinating thing when artists engage with a collection," he says. "They don't necessarily respond to the objects you think they will. They find connections through their own interests, their own practices and their own experiences."
The result is an exhibition that eschews nostalgia; historical objects become prompts rather than endpoints. A piece of eighteenth-century porcelain sparks an investigation into value and waste. A decorative bronze becomes a meditation on labour and persistence. Ornamental forms re-emerge through contemporary materials and processes that David Roche himself could scarcely have imagined.
In many ways, Making Old New reflects broader changes in how museums and collections are understood today. Collections are no longer viewed simply as archives to be preserved, but as resources to be activated. Their relevance depends not only on what they contain but on the new interpretations they invite.
That philosophy has shaped much of the gallery's development over the past decade. Visitor numbers have steadily increased, memberships have grown, and partnerships with institutions across Australia have expanded the reach and reputation of the David Roche Gallery beyond Adelaide. A major redevelopment currently underway, including a new café, expanded retail space and research library, suggests confidence in the gallery's future as much as pride in its past. It also points to the important role house museums such as this play in the ecology of public galleries and museums, offering an important counterpoint to established state institutions.
For Reason, the 10th anniversary offers an opportunity to celebrate not only David Roche's legacy but also the creative community that has grown around it.
"We wanted to think about how the collection could make the greatest impact today," he says. "Working with JamFactory felt like a natural way to do that because it connects David's passion for excellence in the decorative arts with the extraordinary makers working in South Australia now."
Making Old New demonstrates that the past remains most alive when it is allowed to inspire the future.
Image credit: Louis Moinet, Prince Ernst August of Hanover’s clock (detail), c.1810, David Roche collection. Michael Carney, Endurance (detail), 2026. Connor Patterson Photography.
Making Old New: DRG 10th Anniversary.
David Roche Gallery, 241 Melbourne St, North Adelaide
Until August 1 —open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am-4pm (closed Sundays,
Mondays, Public Holidays)
FREE
Tickets: Book your free ticket online or at the door: rochegallery.com.au
David Roche Gallery Fermoy House tours: 10am, 12noon, 2pm (must be prebooked online)
Cost: Adult: $15 | Concession $ 12
rochegallery.com.au
