I saw Design Exquis for the first time at Clerkenwell Design Week and was fascinated by the process, and by the insight it gave into the way designers’ minds word. So I was honoured to be asked to join the judging panel for the student competition of its next incarnation at the Roca Gallery, an incredible space in London designed by Zaha Hadid.
The concept of Design Exquis is a bit like the game of consequences many of us played as children. Both are inspired by the collective method of creation, developed by the Surrealists, known as Exquisite Corpse (Cadavre Exquis).
The exhibition started with work from five established designers each responding to an object created by their predecessor, and ended with an empty plinth and a challenge set to design students across the country to create the final piece in the chain.
The first five stages of the exhibition were:
- Designer #1, Jacopo Sarzi, was given a bar of soap which inspired his object, an ice cream maker
- Design team #2, 45 Kilo, created Summer Bowls, inspired by the ice cream maker
- Design team #3, Studio Swine, created Mountain Light, inspired by Summer Bowls
- Designer #4, Lex Pott, created Reflections, inspired by Mountain Light
- Designer #5, Nick Phillips, produced Metamorphosis, inspired by Reflections
And then design exquis curators, Florian Dussopt and Géraldine Vessière, and I chose third year Brighton University Interior Architecture student Ana Sidorova as the designer to create the final object in the chain. She said, “The sound of marble in Metamorphosis reminded me of water. This made me think of a fountain, due to the continuous flow of the music and of water sounds. Water and waves were the result.” Her Soundwave Fountain was well thought through and technically sound, but also quietly poetic. She was awarded £500 to bring her project to life before it was displayed in the Roca Gallery alongside the pieces that inspired it.
If you want to see more student work, And Then This, a new pop-up exhibition presented by recent Royal College of Art graduates of the Ceramics and Glass MA is at the Roca London Gallery until Thursday 19 December.
Further reading for the especially geeky:
- out and about :: design academy eindhoven graduate show
- out and about :: imprint
- out and about :: ldf13 at the v&a
- out and about :: god is in the detail
