50 GOLBORNE is delighted to announce the international design exhibition: ALCHEMIC DESIGN: TRANSFORMING MATERIAL featuring an eclectic assemblage of exceptional works by Ardmore Ceramics (South Africa), Aldo Bakker (The Netherlands), Alexandra Singer-Beader and Sofia Bennani (Morocco-UK), Astrid Dahl (South Africa), Cheick Diallo (Mali), Future Factories (UK), Janette Laverriere (France), Tomas Libertiny (The Netherlands), Géraldine Gonzalez (France), and Peter Marigold (UK). An alchemic fantasy takes place on the gallery premises in which the expert manipulation of high and low-brow materials culminates into an eclectic and enchanted dream.

 

 

Designers Featured:

 

Paris based Artist and Maker Géraldine Gonzalez, a regular collaborator with the likes of Hermes and Vuitton, plays with crystal rocks to create fantastical Meduses chandeliers and Alice in Wonderland Regard mirrors which lashes delicately capture the light.

 

White clay from the Natal region in South Africa is sculpted, fired and painted with intricate patterns and an unexpected combination of colors by the best artisans of the Ardmore ceramic Studio. A dream is shaped of a world inhabited by wild animals and tropical nature in the form of delightful tea sets, tureens and vases.

 

The same material, in the hands of ceramicist Astrid Dahl takes an altogether other worldly presence as a pure white chiseled sculpture/vase representing enlarged flower pistils.

 

Dutch designer Tomáš Libertiny applies gallons of deep blue Ink from unassuming BIC pens over a beautifully made minimalist cabinet. Melting and massaging it by hand with a secret wax, he creates a most profoundly dense blue surface that invites contemplation.

 

Coconut tree trunks from Bassanam in Ivory Coast are tamed by both sheer physical strength and the loving delicacy of Designer Maker Jean Servais Somian to become chic little consoles that recall the Art Deco period. Somian also transmutes more mundane made in -Ivory - Coast household plastic basins in funky stackable little stools.

 

Conceptual designer Peter Marigold magically ‘problem solves’ the objective of using the least resources as possible to create timeless bronze vases, casting 5cm wood sample in bronze then assembling and melting them together.

 

Future Factories, a 3D printing design venture based in the UK, uses secret algorithms that structure seamless futuristic lamps and chairs. 

 

Plastics straws from China have been melted through a patented scientific process by award winning architects Alexandra Singer Beader and Sofia Bennani. The work is assembled by hand to create structural materials with which they create sinuous Op Art sculpture.

 

Finally, the timeless Nenuphar coffee tables by Janette Laverriere are featured along with Mali based designer Cheick Diallo’s never before shown Tronc capturing the progressive direction of contemporary design.