BEHIND THE SUN

Our icon is a medieval sun, redrawn from the Flammarion engraving, an anonymous wood engraving first published in 1888. That original work portrayed a traveller reaching the ends of the earth, and poking his head through to new realms of imagined futures.

The sun conveys the core of what we do. Night and day. Earthly and cosmic. We create worlds, and worlds revolve around the sun.

INTERVIEW, BENJAMIN AVERY
.

Friend of THE WORLD OF, Benjamin Avery, known as the Colourblind Studio, has channelled his unique colour vision into a distinctive and innovative creative practice. “The imagination fascinates me,” he says, “I've always been trying to create a visual language to express myself and my imagination.”

As captured in recent collaborations with THE WORLD OF, Avery's artistic approach to floral design emphasises the interplay of colours, shapes, patterns, and textures, creating compositions that transcend conventional aesthetics. It began in London, where he honed his craft at Phillo in Notting Hill, subsequently expanding his expertise at Hermetica in Sydney, Australia. In 2020, Avery embarked on an independent career—his artistry celebrated for its unorthodox approach and contribution to contemporary floral art.

THE WORLD OF

What’s your name, and what do you do for a living?

BENJAMIN AVERY

I’m Benjamin Avery, and I’m a botanical stylist.

THE WORLD OF

Describe your current surroundings.

AVERY

Currently, I'm sitting in my studio under a canopy of blossoms that I'm patiently monitoring, waiting for them to open for an exciting installation I have tomorrow.

.
THE WORLD OF

How has your practice evolved in the last year?

AVERY

In the last year, I've been feeling a bit bored, so I've been exploring different ways to find shape and texture. I've been going on hikes and mountain walks, finding rocks and small plants. It's all just an evolution of form, really.

THE WORLD OF

What’s big in your world right now?

AVERY

Besides my work with botanical styling, I've been painting on the side. It’s a nice creative outlet that doesn't involve flowers.

.
THE WORLD OF

Where do you think of your best ideas?

AVERY

Underwater. I dive and free dive quite a bit, so I find new shapes in the fluidity of the underwater world and the weightlessness in which plants and animals thrive. Also, the mountains are a big one for me. Hiking through a volcanic landscape or mossy valley always gets me thinking.

THE WORLD OF

Were you a creative child?

AVERY

Yes, I think as children we are intrinsically creative whether we mean to be or not. My imagination fascinates me, so I would always be drawing, building, whether it was sticks in the bush or rocks by the beach. I've always been trying to create a visual language to express myself and my imagination, and now I get to do that as a job. Science projects always interested me; I went through a lot of bicarb soda volcano models in my youth.

THE WORLD OF

Are you a nostalgic person?

AVERY

Nostalgia for me is tied up in scent, big surprise from someone that works with flowers. Gardenia and lavender, for example–mum's garden. ‘Blue Jean’ by Versace–my first boy kiss. Soil–making bike jumps with my brothers in the Blue Mountains where we grew up. Seaweed drying on rocks–learning to free dive. Antiseptic–my first tattoo at 16 (which I didn’t tell my parents about).

.
THE WORLD OF

Describe your signature scent.

AVERY

I'm wearing Luca by Tsu Lange Yor, and if I had to describe what I like, it's probably moss, forest floor, leather, and smoke.

THE WORLD OF

What track are you playing at the afterparty?


AVERY

I'm probably playing "Submission" by Chris Malinchak.

Submission by Chris Malinchak (2024)
COLLABORATOR, ANAHITA MEKANIK
The Tehran-born, New York-based scent designer Anahita Mekanik conducts her interview with THE WORLD OF from inside a department store. Mekanik,... (Read more )
.
COLLABORATOR, CHRISTOPHER COLONNA
In the mid 2000s, music duo The Bumblebeez—comprising siblings Christopher Colonna and Pia Colonna (AKA Queen ViLa)—catapulted themselves onto... (Read more )
.
COLLABORATOR, HATTIE MOLLOY
The artist and creative director Hattie Molloy—who lives and works in Melbourne—erects strange, kaleidoscopic tableaus from plants, freezing them... (Read more )
.
COLLABORATOR, JEN MONROE
“For my whole adult life,” says Jen Monroe, “taste has felt like an enormous force that dictates so much about the way the creative world works:... (Read more )
.
COLLABORATOR, JENNA LEE
Before Jenna Lee’s mother became an educator, she worked at a Japanese paper store—“so I grew up knowing about paper, how it works and how to... (Read more )
.
COLLABORATOR, QUINN CARMICHAEL
“I have this desire,” says the 3D artist Quinn Carmichael, “to merge my practice with the physical world and explore sensory experiences.” In his... (Read more )
COLLABORATOR, SEAN BRADY & BLAKE AZAR
Sean Brady is a makeup artist who conjures surreal apparitions and fearless, experimental studies in colour. Under his hand, eyes and brows morph... (Read more )
.
COLLABORATOR, SECOND EDITION
When Amy Seo and Shahar Cohen founded Second Edition with Bill Clifton—a director of Robert Plumb Collective—they’d just wrapped their Masters of... (Read more )
.
COLLABORATOR, TAIGA KITA-LEONG
“If the dancer dances—which is not the same as having theories about dancing or wishing to dance or trying to dance or remembering in his body... (Read more )
COLLABORATOR, TROY EMERY
The zoomorphic sculptures of artist Troy Emery trade in absence, abundance and distortion. Take Grampians big cat (2022), a candy-pink creature... (Read more )
.
INTERVIEW, GARY GORROW
Friend of THE WORLD OF, Gary Gorrow, brings a deep well of wisdom to his transformative work as a Vedic Meditation teacher and Ayurvedic Health... (Read more )
.
INTRODUCING THE REBORN SERIES
To celebrate the launch of THE WORLD OF (formally known as Kat&Co) and mark a new era for the studio––which has been crafting disruptive, highly... (Read more )