Les French is series of furniture crafted by London-based Studio Glithero. The pair begin by binding bamboo rods together with string. These ad-hoc structures are later cast in bronze and finally a storage component is created to fit the each unique base.
Sleeping Beauty by Nadine Sterk is light that has a life of its own. When turned on, the lamp not only provides light – it slowly grows, knitting its own lampshade. As a result, “the lamp becomes an animate part of space, an existence in its own right.”
Living in the London, I have come to understand firsthand the problem of the bulky UK power plug. Recent RCA graduate, Min-Kyu Choi, has come up with a clever solution though – a plug that folds flat for easy traveling (left), which can also be adapted to hold up to three USB chargers (right).
Daphna Isaacs and Laurens Manders recently presented ‘Tafelstukken’ at the Dutch Invertuals show in Eindhoven. These three lamps are meant to be modern versions of the traditional table centerpiece, “shining upon themselves and their contents.”
Studio Wieki Somers won the Golden Eye prize at the Dutch Design Awards in Eindhoven this week. Their Merry-Go-Round coat hanging installation allows visitors to secure their own belongings by hoisting them into the air using an elegant pulley system. Patrons can place other items, such as bags, into visible mesh lockers – making the coat room a constantly shifting visual display. The system has been installed at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam (left picture).
Heleen Klopper’s ‘Wool Fillers’ patching kit doesn’t hide the holes, it celebrates them. Using traditional felting techniques the Dutch designer gives new life to worn out materials, making the patch a beautiful, visual focal point.
Maria Jeglinska’s Solaris series includes four different porcelain table lamps, made to accommodate a variety of light bulbs.
The Museum of Everything is a new London venue showcasing the work of the, “untrained,unintentional and unseen creators,” of our world. Founder James Brett has done an amazing job of transforming an old dairy and recording studio into a the perfect space to celebrate these secret artists. In Exhibition #1 over 200 hundred drawings, paintings, sculptures and installations are on display. The stories behind the pieces are as interesting as the work itself and I can’t even begin to describe them here. It just wouldn’t do the project justice. If you live in London or are planning a visit soon, I highly recommend a visit. Free.
Kingston University student, Jaehyuk Choi, recently showcased his ‘Recycled Timber’ series at the Bargehouse in London. Though the pieces look randomly tacked on – the chair, light and table are actually carefully crafted with dovetail inlays.
One of the more intriguing presentations at the Kingston University degree show was Mia Azar’s Plugging Beirut Politics. Azar found that the streets of Beirut are often unmarked, leaving people to find places based on stories surrounding local landmarks. As a solution Azar created a system that puts, “orientation and navigational information into the infrastructure of the city by using manhole covers as markers of political conflicts that have occurred…”
