Studio Glithero: Design Performance in the Fumi Gallery

(adam štěch) Only two months ago, the London-based studio of Glithero presented its new project of Pique candles for the Californian brand of Artecnica. Now, the busy studio has come up with a brand new collection designed for the prestigious Fumi Gallery in London.

The British-Dutch duo of Tim Simpson and Sarah van Gameren, who caught wide attention thanks to their original experiments with wax in the form of the Big Dipper chandeliers, have already cooperated with the Fumi Gallery for some time. Located in the fashionable area of Shoreditsch, the gallery has exhibited experimental and conceptual designs by Max Lamb, Philippe Malouin, Paul Cocksedge, Paul Kelley, and Pieke Bergmans. Until June 7, visitors can see the Les French collection of experimental furniture designed by Glithero especially for this exhibition.

Les French represents a series of astonishing cabinets and cupboards that seem to have wound up in the wrong era. This fragile structure almost looks as if it had been made by some collection of prehistoric people; it looks like it is on the point of collapsing under its own weight. However, a closer look shows that the structure is made from solid bronze that bears cubic drawers and a cupboard whose surface is covered with special paper in a mosaic style. Both parts, however, demonstrate a very interesting relation.

Designers first made haphazard bamboo structures that they later cast in bronze. After that, they started to explore the functional shapes of cupboards that they would place on the individual structures. Thus, various peculiar forms were created that exactly correspond with the structure of “bronze bamboos.” The project has great performative and intuitive qualities. The creative process becomes an important part of the overall effort. Design has received a new dimension in the same way as painting received one through the action painting of Jackson Pollock fifty years ago. A work of art is being created in a non-coordinated way over the course of the process. In this case, design abandons its industrial production principles.

Glithero studio is not the only one to be interested by the direct creative process of a designer object. Several other designers have recently started to apply this new motive. Thus, “design performance” becomes increasingly topical. For this reason, visitors will be able to see the Craft Punk curatorial show, which seeks to present this phenomenon to wider public, at the Design Week in Milan. Needless to say, the Glithero studio will not be absent.

< back