Decorex 2019: Future Heritage
Decorex showcases 'Future Heritage' - a platform for emerging makers and craftspeople, promoting British craft and design.
A highlight from the 2019 edition of Decorex is 'Future Heritage' - a platform for emerging makers and craftspeople, promoting British craft and design. This year, renowned applied arts and design critic and curator, Corinne Julius, selects designer-makers, working across a diverse range of media, to showcase their pieces at the Decorex show at Olympia in London. See below for highlights and select pieces on display at the show.
Alice Walton Ceramics
Alice Walton makes one-off original ceramics, exploring complex and intense surface textures over sculptural forms, often inspired by street furniture and architecture. The pieces create such curiosity with the viewer, the colours and texture attracting further inspection. Created from clay, the works cleverly mimic other materials in their finished form such as plastic, paint or even bark.
Hazel Thorn
Using a combination of base and precious metals, Hazel Thorn constructs sheets whose patterns are produced by the methods of assembling. The unique patterns that develop help dictate the final forms and shapes of the one-off pieces. Applying the same chemical patination to the entire object affects the mixed metals in varied ways, producing contrasting colours that highlight the structure of the sheet.
Lynne Maclachlan
Lynne Maclachlan takes an experimental approach in the creation of her designs with digital tools that explore and push the capabilities of 3D printing in jewellery and accessory design to materialise complex forms. Combining these tools with meticulous hand finishing techniques, such as dying, polishing and construction, elevates each piece to become sculptural works of art and cutting-edge design. While Maclachlan predominantly works in jewellery design, Future Heritage provides a platform to showcase the capabilities of 3D printing in screen and art for the home.
Studio Furthermore
Marina Dragomirova & Iain Howlett form Studio Furthermore, a London bases product design practice that focuses on material exploration. During the Future Heritage exhibition, the studio showcased vessels and furniture designs, part of their 'Moon Rock' collection; described as giving the viewer a glimpse into the not-too-distant future which sees lunar mining on the moon used in similar ways that marble and granite are currently used in furniture and interior design.
Studio Tsai & Yoshikawa
Artists Hsiao-Chi Tsai and Kimiya Yoshikawa work collaboratively on distinctive art installations and sculptural interventions. Using everything from glass and metal to neoprene, Jesmonite, fibreglass, Perspex, fibreglass, UV pigments and blacklight to create fascinating and beautiful works. During the show, the artists exhibited their 'Shape of the Air' series; wall-mounted aluminium sculptures with an LED light that cast shadows out that extend the works into contrasting shadow and light formations.
Future Heritage plays a vital role in the design industry, allowing lesser-known and new designers and artists to exhibit their works alongside prominent brands in one of the UK's most successful luxury interiors fairs. Working alongside internationally recognised curators, the exhibition supports British design, casting a light on some of the country's most talented designers.