Stellar additions to this year’s Decorex line-up will offer new perspectives on materiality…
Renowned applied arts critic and curator of Future Heritage, Corinne Julius, returns to Decorex International (16 – 19 September, Syon Park) with a carefully selected group of designers who represent the pinnacle of contemporary craft making…
Image caption: Plastic Boroque side table, 2013, by James Shaw
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. De Quin is a maker whose work is driven by beauty and function. She employs abstract geometry to create simple, streamline forms that are often the result of vigorous technical experimentation.
image caption: Vase with Blue collar by Rebecca de Quin
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, light sensitive 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.
They will also show a cluster of table lamps featuring liquid optics that project patterns and rippling rainbows onto the table below and ceiling above – an evolution of initial experiments undertaken during the Designers’ in Residence programme at London’s Design Museum. All their work explores themes of nature, time, light and interconnectivity. Katrin Spranger will evolve her ‘Aquatopia’ collection for 2018’s 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 colour, reminiscent of the ephemeral qualities and memories of light within spaces Karlyn has visited. The material and her studies in architecture are both central to her work, which explores the relationship between people and places. A play between light and shadow allows her to convey atmosphere, emotion and narrative.
Jewellery 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 Future Heritage curator Corinne Julius, who saw potential in the combination of KcKibbin’s high impact dyed resins and White’s use of print. Both makers are masters of colour. The result of this partnership is a series of LED table lamps, which mark a new direction for both makers.
Also investigating colour 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.
Curator Corinne Julius comments: “Future Heritage offers a fantastic platform for these makers to expand their ideas and develop new work to present to Decorex’s design-minded audience. I spend a lot of time in their studios, taking with them to ensure that they take the opportunity to develop and present their most exciting new work.”
