These vessels and their plants create an extra-ordinary living space — dripping jungle vines alongside dried grasses side by side spiky fluffy cacti growing next to neon flowers made from borosilicate — inhabiting the gallery. The huge variety of objects attest to the wide ranging visions and skills within the design group, from industrial machine made to highly artisanal hand made design. Although conceptually and technically divergent this group know each other well and are very familiar with each others work and lives. This intimacy creates coherency, understanding and conversation despite the distinct approaches from each artist.
The shared framework for the show was a set of rules: to make an object to hold a plant, and to make this using existing elements from their studio archive, revisiting materials and techniques from old ideas. This re-evaluation of studio left-overs encouraged each designer to reappraise their past and approach the plant holder from their own design aesthetic but with a common goal uniting everyone.
Presented as part of the Brompton Design District in the London Design Festival 2022. In 2022, BDD is curated by Jane Withers Studio around the theme ‘Make Yourself at Home’. This collaborative project brings together a group of designers — Tiago Almeida, Attua Aparicio, Jochem Faudet, Lars Frideen, Jon Harrison, Max Frommeld, Martino Gamper, Gemma Holt, Jochen Holz, Max Lamb, Will Shannon, Harry Thaler, Oscar Wanless, Bethan Wood — and will culminate in a collective workshop held during the exhibition turning the ‘home’ into a place to experiment and create with friends.
