Jennifer Gray: Headphones for Soanes
MOST and Sir John Soane’s Museum present a cabinet of curiosities to coincide with the London Design Festival.
Five designers have been selected to display work that reference Soane’s collection and practice.
Amphora-Garlands
Jennifer Gray: Headphones for Soanes, Amphora Garlands
Headphones inspired by and designed for Sir John Soane’s Museum. The wearer can listen to modern music through classical stone artefacts. ‘Amphora Garlands’ gives the wearers an experience of removing the stone garland from a classical ceramic urn to adorn themselves. When the stone garland is not being worn on the body it is placed back on the classical urn to complete it again as a sculptural ornament.
Jennifer designs and makes objects and jewellery in a range of materials and techniques, which move in and out of the hand-made, and the digital. Each series is unified, in particular through use of traditional hand carving methods, enhanced by taking advantage of emerging digital technologies.
She wants to demonstrate that new technological approaches can blend naturally into a piece of work as a means to build upon what’s gone before.
Nigel Coates: Domo Table and Chairs, Carry Artid Table Lamp
Adding to the charged, Soaneian complexity of an exquisite room, this ensemble defines the perfect place for a secret dinner à trois. The furniture’s sinuous, anthropomorphic forms and sense of tension prepares the guests for the unexpected. The spherical centerpiece suggests a séance-like presence uniting all three diners.
Peter Marigold: The Square Light, The Wooden Corner Cabinet, Hod
The pieces shown at Sir John Soane’s Museum reflected the eclectic nature of the buildings.
Three completely new objects show this best:
The ‘Square Light’ is a sculptural object that can be positioned in many ways in response to the space it is put in.
The ‘Wooden Corner Cabinet’ made in douglas fir is inspired by Soanes use of mirrors in furniture. One half of the cabinet is open while one is obscured by a mirror giving the illusion of a complete form.
‘Hod’, a new production piece for SCP, is a small book holder that can be used around office for temporary groups of books in use.
Study O Portable: A to Zanthoxylum
A set of pencils made of 26 timber species arranged alphabetically by scientific name. The pencils are based on the work of George Loddiges, who, in 1840, planted an alphabetical arboretum at Abney Park Cemetery in Stoke Newington.
Through replanting, propagation, diseases and other disturbances, the arboretum has now turned into scattered letters and accidental words, resembling chance poetry.
Vitamin: Knot Pendant Lamps, Urban Gnomes
The ‘Knot Pendant Lamps’ come in two different designs of hand blown glass shade each supported by a monkey fist knot.
The knots are tied from brightly coloured cable in a selection of 6 colours. The ‘Urban Gnome’ is the alternative to traditional garden figurines – it is the “must-have” gnome for the modern consumer. The ‘Urban Gnomes Collection’ comes in a range of cool black and colourful graphical designs. These two products were carefully selected from the Vitamin range, in order to provide a contemporary addition to the Sir John Soane Museum’s aesthetic.
Since Vitamin was set up in 2005 its mission has been to produce designs which are more than just a little out of the ordinary. With a keen eye for detail, refinement and quality mixed with a little fun and originality, Vitamin’s product offering spans furniture, lighting, ceramics and homewards. Based in the heart of London’s East End, Vitamin has built up a worldwide presence with its products sold all across the globe.
MOST
MOST is an international platform to help creative brands reach their key audiences. Milan Design Week 2014 will see the third edition of MOST Salone, the 30 brand exhibition which attracts over 25,000 visitors each year. MOST has a unique blend of cutting edge design brands with spectacular creative projects. MOST was instigated by Tom Dixon, and is run by Will Sorrell.
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