Design High at Louise Blouin
Spaghetti Bale, Pablo Reinoso, wood and steel, 2008 (courtesy of Carpenters Workshop Gallery)
Design High, an exhibition of design art is on show at the Louise Blouin Foundation in West London until 30 August
For those of you who are not sure what design art actually is, this show is the chance to find out. Originally sneered at as a commercial label thought up by auction houses to market limited-edition furniture at vast prices, design art now seems to have carved itself a more respected niche in the arts market, justifying itself as the cutting-edge no-man’s-land between craft and fine art, function and formalism. And this exhibition certainly contains some interesting objects – many make a nod to function, but can equally be seen as purely sculptural forms.
Highlights include Pablo Reino’s playful Spaghetti Bale and Sebastian Brajkovic’s Lathe 1, a sofa that’s been bent round to create a nearly circular form reminiscent of Victorian circular settees but made with a consciously contemporary bronze rather than the 19th-century heavily buttoned velvets. Look out also for Atelier Van Lieshout’s Tree Table Lamp, a seemingly simple table lamp but with a gnarled stand resting on a network of roots with branches (or are they dead bodies?) hanging from it.
www.lbtfoundation.org
