As part of the annual London Design Festival (LDF), held this year 16 - 24 September, the Brompton Design District - an affluent part of London that includes the Victoria and Albert Museum - typically features the work of designers, artists and creative professionals, providing them a platform to showcase their innovative and cutting-edge design concepts during the annual LDF.
The Brompton district hosts a series of exhibitions, installations and presentation in showrooms, shops, galleries and institutions across the whole area.
One such venue is the Cromwell Place which has 14 gallery spaces, across five Grade II listed townhouses, and a programme of arts exhibitions and events.
Among the highlights is MANUS MANUM LAVAT, One hand washes the other by East-London based artist, designer and maker Rio Kobayashi. Though this is his first solo exhibition, Rio has involved many other creators to form a collaborative show and event space to create a convivial living space.
Rio's exhibition features his craftsmanship primarily in wood carving and his sense of fun injected into everyday objects that are also practical as well as aesthetically creative. Bringing together design pieces that reflect his deep sense for relationships, his works on display are results of collaborations and the gallery space will co-exist as a living room for people enjoying the company of design objects and designers. From DJs, to chefs, graphic designers and artists, the exhibition will give a little insight into what is most essential to Rio and his work – bringing people together and having fun.
Rio's belief is that happiness is achieved by creating a life of quality both in the materialistic world and in our internal worlds. Note his collaboration with Austrian audio specialist Wiener Lautsprecher Manufaktur (WLM ) for its wood encased amplifiers and speakers. Thus when one enters his exhibition space, there's soul-enhancing music playing to entertain visitors.
There's a fish table - Fatty Tuna - an oak table featuring a fish painted by artist James Hague, and comes complete with a detachable fin that can double up as a cutting board. A modula sofa designed with Flavia Brandle covered with new fabrics by Peter Pilotto and Christopher de Vos of Phase 2, who are also showing Cromwell Place. Peter and Christopher also supplied fabrics for Rio's lanterns.
Rio was born of mixed heritage in Japan (Austrian-Italian-Japanese) to an artisan family, and was later trained as a cabinet maker in Austria. He lived and worked in a number of different cities around Europe before setting up his own practice in London.
Phase 2 is the collaboration between Christopher De Vos Caballero and Peter Pilotto that represents a new collection of homewares, furnishings and clothing explore the interaction between fashion and interiors, and highlighting the collaboration between designer and producer.
The duo ran the Peter Pilotto fashion brand for 14 years and decided to rethink their creative business 2020.
Following extensive travelling through Latin America, reconnecting with Christopher's half Peruvian, half Belgian roots, Phase 2 is the result of 2 years of developing a new concept which explores the exchange between the surroundings and self-expression, between the spaces we inhabit and the clothing we wear.
The designers were inspired by Christopher's grandfather who was a topographer and collection of minerals. The exhibition includes a range of homewares with motifs informed by minerals such as malachite, pyrite and black opal. Works include hand-knotted rugs made in Nepal, jacquard weaves from Italy for upholstery, hand-painted and lacquered furniture made in England, embroidered velvets for screens and soft furnishings and digitally printed throws and clothing.
Untold Beauty: Korean craft and design - hosted by Lloyd Choi Gallery. In recent years, whilst South Korea’s dynamic pop culture has become an international phenomenon, the country has seen a new movement, reviving the aesthetic in art and design of the Joseon dynasty (around the time of the 14th century), a distinctive time in Korean craftsmanship.
Designers, makers, and artists are finding inspiration from traditional forms, materials, processes and in traditional values of that dynastic period, holding these at the core of their contemporary practices, exploring the current return to Joseon’s contemplative aesthetic: featuring ceramics, furniture, textile, and woodwork, including the Moon Jar.
Peruke Projects presents Itinerant Practices featuring the works of three artists who lived and worked in Singapore at the same time. They are the multi-displinary artists Hélène le Chatelier, American painter Lydia Janssen and British artist Piers Bourke. The show is built in relation to the individual negotiations between "back home" and "now", according to text provided, culminating in a richly woven tapestry of memoirs of cross-culturalism, identity, transnationality and hybridism.
Hélène Le Chatelier’s Missing Part underscores resilience as a commonality of our human condition. Lydia Janssen draws from previous exhibitions Spotlight and Yellow Brick Road, and developing new sketches titled The Rectangles, investigating what it means to belong and feel at home. Piers Bourke’s Fan series were developed as a result of his time living in Singapore. The convergence of cultural influences of living and traveling in Southeast Asia led him back to the fundamentals of working with paint on paper and canvas.
In the Pavilion Gallery, showcasing for the first time is a roster of artists that comprise Canopy Collections. Entitled Full House is an exhibition of new works by 22 international artists ranging from the emerging to some of the most established names in the contemporary art world., uniting under one roof a broad diversity of expressions, backgrounds and aesthetics.
The focus of Canopy Collections for the past three years is to provide a supportive and accessible environment for artists and collectors alike, through carefully curated exhibitions of unique works of art. Full House invites the audience "to re/discover both the variety and mutuality of the artistic practices they represent, celebrating art in its various forms, and "as a vector for exchange and community building."
The line up of artists include David Batchelor, Charlotte Beaudry, Richard J. Butler, Thomas Cameron, Celeste, William Cobbing, Lara Davies, Benedikte Klüver, Sarah Lederman, Anastasia Lopoukhine, Daniel MacCarthy, Ellie MacGarry, James William Murray, Irvin Pascal, Dan Rees, Marianne Thoermer, Grace Tobin, Ian Whittlesea, Aethan Wills, Salomé Wu, William Stein.
All photos by Lucia Carpio.
