News

Laminarium

21 April – 19 June 2010
Stanley Picker Gallery

Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture
Kingston University, Knights Park
Kingston upon Thames
KT1 2QJ

Tue – Fri 12 – 6pm
Sat 12 – 4pm
Mon – by appointment
www.stanleypickergallery.org

Dead or Alive
27 April – 24 October, 2010
Museum of Arts and Design, New York
2 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10019
USA
www.madmuseum.org

POST FOSSIL: excavating 21st century creation
24 April – 27 June 2010
21_21 DESIGN SIGHT, Tokyo
9-7-6 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo
JAPAN
www.2121designsight.jp

Tangible Nothingness

It is difficult to express or photograph the nothingness that surrounds us as we drive through the country. The absence of anything giving us a sense of scale of the landscape is stunning just as the infinite details we see for miles, in the soil and rocks, the colours of the plants, the changes in light, wind and water.

Click on the images to enlarge them and use the back button to get back to the gallery overview.

This is the mushroom haul from our last excursion. We were pretty sure they were edible but couldn’t ask anyone to double-check because there is no Icelandic tradition of gathering mushrooms. Gero and I researched online and he sampled a little bite – and I am pleased to say is still alive and well.

We used the mushrooms for a range of dishes, among them the legendary Champignon Schnitzel.

The Herhusid residency centre team watched us closely for a few days before plucking up the courage to tuck in as well.

Design can be understood as adding value – it is employed to add value to materials and objects to generate a commercial profit and functional, emotional benefit in the process.

Based on the rules of a popular German children’s game, the students take this notion to the extreme and create their design piece or design inspiration from and apple and an egg.

The rules of the game:

At the beginning of the project the students split in groups of two to three people and each group will be given an apple and an egg. This is their capital for this project. Now it is up to each team to make the most of their capital by finding people who will trade with them.

The following days we create design proposals and projects from the inspiration and the objects traded on day one.

How could anyone resist trading with Magali and Juliette?

...but what to make of it all?

Projects emerge from the trade -by Clara, Nina & Yuan

development of the ideas - by Nina & Pierre

…and on to the final presentation tomorrow, with our ‘external examiner’ David Dubois…

The Conformitory is designed to make safe elements of nature. It acknowledges our desire to connect with flora, fauna and the environment. However, a thorough risk assessment has shown that any contact needs to be controlled. Visit the Conformitory where we process nature to conform to health and safety standards.

Julia Lohmann & Gero Grundmann

Best known for her elegant lamps made from sheep’s stomachs, designer Julia Lohmann will be resident in the Embankment Galleries’ Studio with Gero Grundmann, for ‘The Conformitory: Nature Contained’, as part of ‘Wouldn’t it be nice… Wishful thinking in art and design’.

Working busily from inside a forensic tent, Lohmann and Grundmann will be manufacturing sanitised, ‘health and safety approved’ versions of the natural world – laminated leaves, perfected branches, nut-free nuts and more…

The Conformitory at ‘Wouldn’t it be nice… Wishful thinking in art and design’, Somerset House, Strand London WC2R 1LA, 27 November – 7 December 2008

For press enquiries please contact: Tom.Coupe@SomersetHouse.org.uk