see••ds is pleased to present masters of disguise as part of brompton design district 2019, an exhibition that seeks to interpret this year’s theme nature/nurture by looking at the notion of human nature.
in the current age of the anthropocene, designers need to reflect not only on their work, but also at their own identity as creative professionals. who we are and how we choose to represent ourselves to the world is deeply rooted in how we interpret the relationship to the environment. this is the essence of human nature.
masters of disguise will explore this concept by exhibiting the work of key contemporary artists/designers including jochen holz, martino gamper and sabine marcelis, and more who have been invited to design masks that address questions of identity, visibility and image. together with their interpretation of their individual identity – their ‘human nature’ – in the form of a mask. questions of identity, performance and display are at the core of this exhibition. in the current era of hyper-visibility and obsession with image culture, a mask is a powerful metaphor for the changes of identity that we perform in our everyday interactions across different media and realities.
during the exhibition, a performative dinner will be hosted at the space where artists will be playing with their masks in a social gathering where the expression of hiding/revealing an identity will be presented to the hosts. the exhibition setting will be specifically created for the occasion using low-impact materials. artists/designers will also be contributing to the exhibition with a number of objects that will be used during the performative opening event (including furniture, lights, tableware, cutlery, glasses, vases etc).
curated by m–l–xl / m–l–xl is a design studio that works across different disciplines, including furniture design, installations, type design and publishing. the studio, with offices in venice and london, was founded by marco campardo and lorenzo mason, and focuses on research, experimenting with languages, techniques and materials.
14-22 september 2019
mon-sun 10am-6pm
35-36 thurloe place
south kensington
sw7 2hp
tube > south kensington
#ldf19 #mastersofdisguise #seedslondonstrong>
up-and-coming names in british craft are given a platform at future heritage. it’s a space for the decorex community to discover and support collectible new artists and designers, long before the wider interior design industry.
in response to a brief set before decorex, each designer works collaboratively across a diverse range of media to craft a distinctive, one-off piece that’s exhibited at the show. these pieces showcase the skills the designers use when working on commissioned pieces for both commercial and private clients. stellar additions to this year’s line-up will offer new perspectives on materiality.
renowned applied arts critic and curator of future heritage, corinne julius, returns to decorex international with a carefully selected group of designers who represent the pinnacle of contemporary craft making
joining multi-disciplinary studio glithero, glassblower jochen holz, and the ceramicist kaori tatebayashi for this year’s edition of future heritage is south london based james shaw, the experimental product and furniture designer. shaw will create new pieces, including a fountain, console table, stools and vessels that build upon ‘plastic baroque’, his acclaimed series in which he uses a hand-operated gun that extrudes recycled plastic to create furniture. ‘plastic baroque’ challenges the contemporary perception of plastic and asks, ‘how can plastic be used better?’
metal-smith rebecca de quin also joins this year’s line-up. she will be making three new, large-scale patinated wall panels that include detachable vessels, which can be used as bowls or platters. combining copper and brass with steel and sterling silver, de quin will use patination – the process whereby changes in the surface of a metal are induced by the application of chemicals and heat – to alter the colour and texture of her material. hand-applied textures and finishes will create further contrasts, offering an innovative and unexpected aesthetic.
founded by turkish twins, begum and bike ayaskan, studio ayaskan is a london-based, experimental design studio. for future heritage the duo will develop ‘trace’, a clock that uses a uv-activated, lightsensitive liquid solution to create a fluctuating cycle of colour as time passes. accompanying it will be a new design with the same concept: a self-standing clock that projects the passage of time on to the wall behind it.
katrin spranger will evolve her ‘aquatopia’ collection for 2018s future heritage. made by electroforming copper and combining it with glass containers, the primary materials for the transit and storage of water, her intricately crafted glasses, jug and containers will straddle the line between function, imagined function and aesthetic quality. her vessels look beautiful but also investigate the human impact on water supplies, in which pure water is on the verge of extinction.
karlyn sutherland has been working with glass since 2009. for future heritage she will present a series of fused, wall-mounted installations, the surfaces of which are uniform and flat. the effect will be an illusion of depth created by overlapping planes of subtle color, reminiscent of the ephemeral qualities and memories of light within spaces karlyn has visited.
jewelry designer marlene mckibbin and textile designer alison white will work as a duo for the first time. the designers, who have been firm friends since they began their careers in the 1970s, were encouraged to collaborate by julius, who saw potential in the combination of mckibbin’s high impact dyed resins and white’s use of print. both makers are masters of color. the result of this partnership is a series of led table lamps, which mark a new direction for both makers.
also investigating color is royal college of art recent graduate, jie wu, who will showcase miniature boxes made in wood and resin; materials which clash and merge in different conditions to create a variety of marble-like patterns. wu’s investigation of the contrast between the natural and the artificial, explores a world where the impact of manmade materials is leaving an indelible mark on the face of the planet.
corinne julius comments: “future heritage offers a fantastic platform for these makers to expand their ideas and develop new work, often on a larger scale, to present to decorex’s design-minded audience. i spend a lot of time in their studios, talking with them to ensure that they take the opportunity to develop and present their most exciting new work.”
