Reviews of Irish craft at the London Design Festival
This year’s event took place last week with a not insignificant number of Irish shrines at which to worship, and providing a welcome cleanser for the jaded palates of home interior enthusiasts.
My favourite venues year-on-year are 100% Design at Earls Court and Tent London. Just a few year’s ago, the latter was the upstart of the design exhibition world, but thanks to the guts of its founder, Jimmy McDonald, who wanted to offer something off the mainstream, it has grown into one of the must-see venues, showing a number of country pavilions, including one from Ireland this year.
Sited away from the pristine exhibition halls of West London in a former East End brewery, it’s promoted as a market place where the public can buy and commission products on the spot. In its first year it was lively, edgy and the place to go for the brand new and sometimes unpolished and experimental, and still is.
In the midst of it all, I found an Irish contingent of furniture, textile and lighting designers, ceramicists, glass makers, and wood turners, linked together under the heading of Weathering.
Curator and exhibition designer Steven McNamara, who put the Weathering pavilion together, says, “I chose 24 makers who have objects that are stripped back to their essence and include collaborations between designers and makers.”
One such was Fergal O’Leary and his Stanley chair upholstered in Donegal tweed from Molloy & Sons, and on a smaller scale, a commission by Makers & Brothers for wood turner Matt Jones which produced a sculptural pepper mill.
There was also a theme of simplicity where objects have been reduced to their simplest form, emphasising their function while having a beauty of their own in this pared back, one might even say, weathered form. The overall narrative was one of connection, with a suggestion of weathering — a meaning reflected in the economic climate, and also to illustrate what two makers in collaboration can create — something new and of value.
But in the midst of wholesome themes of collaboration and poetic weatherings, what’s the real value to the designer/ makers whose works are on view?
“It’s a commercial show,” says Steven. “As a result of last year’s Tent, Andrew Clancy is now in the Conran Shop.”
It was Clancy’s Strand lamp which was picked up by the design firm and now retails for £695.But this year, he has collaborated with boat builder Matthew O’Malley to make a new chair — traditional craft meeting modern design.
One of the most striking pieces in the pavilion was a light by Shane Holland. His output is often large-scale with an industrial feel, but his contribution showed the confidence of one who is established and of international repute in creating the antithesis of a shade by simply framing a bare light bulb.
Perhaps the most refreshing contribution of all from the Irish contingent was the work of glass maker Scott Benefield. Like the master glass maker Karl Harron, Benefield uses glazes which give his glass an arresting, almost ceramic look, but the finished product is strikingly modern and minimal.
* Next week it’s a wider view of the London Design Festival and what’s new for 2015.
A fascinating approach to lighting design comes from the studio of Carlow-based, Jacinta Edge-Moody. Combining fabrics with fibre optics and LED lights, she marries textiles to modern technology to create lighting art pieces.
A ready-to-go range uses her original designs cut into acrylics side-lit by LEDs, and she also makes bespoke pieces incorporating printing and hand-painting techniques with fibre optically enhanced textiles.
www.jemtextiles.net
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
