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 (experiments, samples, partially made elements, failed works, moulds) encouraged each designer to reappraise their past and approach the plant holder from their own design aesthetic but with a common goal uniting everyone.
As part of the Brompton Design District, 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.
Notes to Editor:
In 2016 Gamper invited friends and ex students from the RCA to work collectively and individually for a show No Ordinary Love (Martino Gamper with Friends) at SEEDS, London. The designers collectively produced ceramics, bronze and individual pieces. Everything in the show investigated how design interacts with notions of authorship, inspiration and influence and how this plays out alongside market forces. Funded from collectively sold works from 2016 this group of 14 designers have decided to work together once more for a London Design Festival presentation in 2022 at Brompton Design District.