Photo by Benny Capp from his 2021 exhibition of Australia’s best and brightest set designers, decorators and curators working in Film and Television. The participating artists had been asked to create a set that reflected their personality and lifestyle.
All sets were built and shot at All Time Studios during a period where many of the subjects were experiencing a drastic reduction in work due to the COVID-19 restrictions. Head to the website to see the rest of the stunning sets and their creators unscenesets.com
About
New Zealand born McKenzie has spent over 25 years working in the film industry – getting a break early on as one of the Heads of Set Dressing for The Lord of the Rings films I, II, III.
Thanks to a Diploma of Craft Design from Nelson School of Design in NZ, Victoria had the perfect foundation for the role – having learnt basket weaving, woodworking, dyeing, loom weaving, printmaking, paper making, pottery, bronze casting. All great skills to have when every prop and dressing on Lord of the Rings films was handmade.
In 2001, she moved to Australia with little more than her collection of hand woven baskets and shell necklaces.
Since then she has worked on over 50 television productions, films and TV Commercials creating anything and everything required for the set – from hand sewn possum cloaks for the docu-drama ‘The Reincarnation of William Buckley’; to crafting a four metre high paper effigy of the King of Hades for the SBS four-part series Hungry Ghosts; to decorating Phyrne Fisher’s 1920s Melbourne mansion for the ABC TV series Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries; to recreating the 1960s home of Charmian Biggs - the wife of the great train robber Ronnie Biggs - and an abundant Beunos Aries marketplace for the Mrs Biggs TV series; to creating a circa 1660s market place and tavern and cemetery at Montselvat, and a gyspy village at the Mount Dandenong Arboretum for the film Judy and Punch.
Prior to working in film, Victoria worked as a Textile Tutor, a Landscape Gardener, and the designer of NZ underwear company Thunderpants.
When not designing sets, Victoria is in her gorgeous garden or adding to her Pacifika collections which are housed in her 1940’s Melbourne house that boasts a fabulous 1970s renovation, and going on adventures in her 1969 Franklin Regent caravan.
Article by Shelby Deering from American Fleamarket Magazine. Photographs by Kate Hansen. 2019
