Sydney artist Rachel Castle is thinking back on the decade she lived in Britain. She was there during the Sydney Olympics, babes in arms, and she remembers feeling "this overwhelming sense of homesickness for those iconic Australian brands" advertising at the time – such as Qantas, a brand that could "actually fly you home".
Melbourne-based photographer Tom Blachford flew Qantas the first time he ever went on a plane. "I remember being so excited about that."
Nowadays, he says, it's an airline he's always happy to fly at the end of a long trip. "It's great to be back on board and hear those Australian accents."
Castle and Blachford are talking Qantas because the airline commissioned them, along with 14 other Australian artists, to design amenities bags and eye masks for its business class passengers on international flights as part of an initiative called Qantas Curates, launched on Wednesday night.
The travel kits (eight for men and eight for women) will be offered two at a time every few months from next month.
Aside from the honour he says it is to be part of the project, Blachford is taken with the idea passengers will get to slip on his work – "which usually sits on a wall behind a frame" – and have a nap.
For his design, he's chosen Black Water, a photograph of a small fleet of yachts taken from a helicopter 1000 feet above Port Phillip Bay in Melbourne.
For Castle, the challenge was the demographic of that passenger at the pointy end of the plane. "My husband used to travel business class all the time and he used to bring home the travel packs for our kids, so I guess I was thinking what would be a bit of fun that would get a dad or mum to think 'I'm going to give those to the kids'," says Castle.
"So it had to be playful, it had to be colourful. It had to appeal to the granddad, the dad and the kids."
Her design, I Love The People, emblazons these words and "I Love the Places" in bright letters on black.
Other artworks to feature include Fairy Bread by Billie Justice Thomson, 7000 Ironbarks by Fred Fowler, and Maaate by Jon Campbell.
The airline worked closely with contemporary Australian art curators to select styles spanning pop culture, photography, fine art, abstract landscape, Indigenous art and textile design.
Qantas brand and marketing chief Olivia Wirth says the vision is to grow awareness of contemporary Australian art and give travellers a collectable piece to take home with them.
"Along with inflight pyjamas, we know amenity kits are an important part of the international business class experience," she says.
"Customers love the functionality of our kits and many use them after their flight as make-up bags, an evening clutch or to carry their mobile phones."
Hopefully, says Castle, hers will "end up as where some little girl gets to keep her erasers or something".
If mum can be persuaded to part with it, that is.
Artists in Qantas Curates
- Jacob Leary – Bubblegum Dystopia (on the kit for women from May 1)
- Liam Snootle – No Queen Blues/Unwind (on the kit for men from May 1)
- Billie Justice Thomson – Fairy Bread
- Bonnie and Neil – Gypsy Floral
- Craig & Karl – Home
- Fred Fowler – 7000 Ironbarks
- Jon Campbell – Maaate
- Kate Banazi – Adas' Algorithm
- Lucy Simpson – Dhina
- Luke Shadbolt – North Avoca ECL 2016
- Megan Weston – Iceland
- Myra Yurtiwa Cooke – Lirrun
- Nicole Warne – Hamilton Island 2014
- Polly Pawuya Butler-Jackson – Mobile Phone Tower
- Rachel Castle – I Love the People
- Tom Blachford – Black Water
