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      Ai Weiwei's first design exhibition celebrates “how life goes on” after the pandemic

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      Hundreds of thousands of cannonballs, donated Lego bricks and a marble toilet roll feature in Making Sense, the first design-focussed exhibition by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei at London’s Design Museum.

      Showing a range of new and historical works spread across a single gallery, Ai Weiwei: Making Sense opens at the Design Museum this Friday and marks the artist’s first design-focussed exhibition to date.
      Still Life is an installation of thousands of found objects from the Stone Age”I had to do something after the pandemic to celebrate how life goes on,” explained Ai, who is globally recognised for using art as a tool for activism.
      Central to the space is five “field works” made from rectilinear arrangements of found objects that the artist has been collecting since the 1990s.
      Ai Weiwei also created a “field work” from porcelain cannonballsStill Life is a group of several thousand Stone Age axe heads, knives, spinning wheels and chisels sourced from flea markets and laid side-by-side. The installation intends to humble visitors and serve as a reminder that design was originally based on survival.

      Another untitled work created last year brings together over 200,000 Xing ware porcelain cannonballs made during China’s Song dynasty – seemingly delicate objects that were once war weapons.
      Left Right Studio Material collects Ai’s sculptures that were destroyed by the Chinese government”It’s a matter of intelligence,” Ai told Dezeen, discussing his long history of collecting artefacts.
      “It is to keep the memory and to try and build yourself with what has happened to other human beings in very dramatically different times through history.”
      Other pieces feature thousands of Lego bricksSpouts is an installation of thousands of ancient porcelain teapot spouts, while Left Right Studio Material collects fragments of Ai’s sculptures that were destroyed by the Chinese state when it demolished the artist’s Beijing studio without warning in 2018.
      “The remains are a form of evidence of the repression that Ai has suffered at the hands of the Chinese government, as well as a testament to his ability to turn destruction into art,” said the Design Museum.
      Among the found objects is a Han dynasty urn painted with a Coca Cola logoThe fifth “field work” features piles of Lego bricks that were donated by members of the public after the toy manufacturer stopped supplying bricks to Ai because he used the toys to create portraits of political prisoners.
      Called Lego Incident, the work is presented alongside a vast recreation of French impressionist Claude Monet’s famed Water Lillies series that is also made entirely out of Lego, as well as a dramatic wooden sculpture made of columns sourced from a Qing dynasty temple and tables from the same period.
      In 2020, the artist created a toilet roll from marble in response to the pandemicAmong the other pieces in the exhibition, the artist presented a pair of large sculptures made from life jackets and children’s school bags respectively.
      The objects were arranged in two snake-shaped formations dedicated to the victims of China’s 2009 Sichuan earthquake and the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe.
      Also on display are two life-size toilet rolls made from marble and glass, which were designed in 2020 in response to our dependency on everyday objects at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
      Photography also features in the exhibition, including the artist’s Study of Perspective series”They work as one,” said Ai, who said he does not have a favourite piece in the exhibition – rather, he feels the projects complement each other.
      “All my works work as one – the bad ones, the so-called ‘good’ ones, the random ones or the ones being neglected.”
      “It’s just like, can you choose one part of your body as the most important one?”

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      Various photography was also shown, including colourful new editions of the artist’s Study of Perspective series – images of the artist pointing his middle finger at recognisable landmarks including Berlin’s Reichstag building and New York’s Trump Tower.
      Prints displaying the National Stadium, widely known as the Bird’s Nest, being constructed prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics were also mounted to the wall.
      While the artist helped to conceive the stadium in collaboration with architecture studio Herzog & de Meuron, he later distanced himself from the project in protest against the Chinese government.
      One image shows Beijing’s Bird’s Nest stadium in construction”I never really have a particular hope,” said Ai. “I just focus on my own practice,” he said discussing how he would like audiences to engage with the exhibition.
      “I think it’s a good idea to present to others as people may share the same kind of emotions or concepts [to you]. But I have no idea – I just don’t know.”
      Other recent projects contained in Ai’s extensive portfolio of political work include a cage-like structure in Stockholm and a Quebec City installation made of a wall of life jackets that were used by Syrian refugees while attempting to cross the Mediterranean sea.
      The images are courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio.
      Ai Weiwei: Making Sense is on display at London’s Design Museum from 7 April to 30 July 2023. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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      Artist Anouska Samms crafts “dysfunctional” pots from human hair

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      Artist Anouska Samms created pots from clay and donated human hair to playfully explore her family’s matrilineal relationship, which were recently on show as part of an exhibition in London.

      Called This Myth We Make, the exhibition by Samms included a collection of pots displayed on rugged wood and plaster plinths as well as an accompanying film and a large hanging tapestry.
      Samms created lopsided pots with human hairThe various pots are formed from lopsided shapes made out of coloured clay but are defined by the many strands of human hair that decorate them.
      Samms received the hair from a range of strangers from around the world including Mexico, Australia and Japan after inviting volunteers to offer up their hair through a call-out on her Instagram.
      She sourced the hair from strangers on InstagramThis was achieved during national lockdowns when people were cutting their hair at home as they could not access salons, according to the artist.

      “The combination of hair and clay and the different varieties of each that are used merge in an unusual way,” she told Dezeen.
      “This subverts the more traditional pots – particularly the hand-thrown ones – into what I think of as unstable vessels or dysfunctional containers. Using hair is also just a bit cheeky at times,” she added.
      The pots were presented as part of a London exhibitionAs well as hair from strangers, Samms used hair donated by her mother and grandmother, which she explained links to the meaning behind her work.
      This Myth We Make intends to playfully explore the matrilineal relationship between five generations of women in Samms’ family who all dyed their hair red as an intimate family tradition.

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      As a natural redhead herself, the artist described how she poetically continues the tradition without needing to dye her hair.
      “This body of work reflects a deeper unconscious – I would even call it an obsessive illustration of matrilineal connection – and the familial ‘myths’ we consciously or unconsciously adopt to communicate our love for others,” said Samms.
      This Myth We Make explored a hair-dyeing tradition in the artist’s familyIn line with this theme, the artist bleached and dyed the donated hair different shades of auburn, which was also used to form Big Mother – a large tapestry presented in the exhibition.
      Her design process involved tying the hair into bunches before it was coloured, after which she washed it in her own bathtub and eventually sewed or shaped it onto pots or into the tapestry.
      “Sometimes just preparing the hair alone took a couple of days,” reflected Samms.
      A tapestry and an accompanying film were also included in the showWhile the artist chose to incorporate hair into her pots in reference to her family’s unique tradition, she explained how she crafted the vessels from clay due to the material’s similar malleability and organicness.
      “There is also potential for disgust and bodily horror in the use of disembodied human hair – another humorous nod at the purity and absurdity of mother and daughter exchange,” concluded Samms.
      Clay was used for its malleabilityThe exhibition was curated by the V&A museum’s curator of digital design Natalie Kane while the show’s technical producer Greg Bradlaugh created the plinths from abandoned wood that he found and covered in white plaster.
      Other designs that are made from human hair include a textile by research studio Pareid that was created to measure urban pollution and a biodegradable stool by Oksana Bondar called Wiggly.
      The photography is by Benjamin Swanson.
      This Myth We Make took place at SET Studios in Lewisham, London, from 20 May to 1 June 2022. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
      Project credits:
      Artist: Anouska SammsCurator: Natalie KaneTechnical Producer: Greg Bradlaugh

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      Galerie Philia presents design exhibition informed by Le Corbusier at Cité Radieuse

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      Galerie Philia has unveiled Héritages, an exhibition at the Le Corbusier-designed Cité Radieuse building featuring work by designers such as Rick Owens that respond to the Swiss-French architect’s theories of modernism.

      Héritages presents work by eight international designers and seven visual artists that reference the modernist theories pioneered by Le Corbusier, whose designs are known for their functionality and minimalism.
      A daybed by Arno Declercq features in the “resonances” room. Photo is by Maison Mounton NoirGalerie Philia joined forces with the Parisian arts magazine Eclipse to curate the exhibition at Le Corbusier’s iconic Cité Radieuse building in Marseille, which includes a range of both design and art.
      Spread across two rooms in an apartment, the exhibited designers respond to the theme of “resonances” with work that is heavily influenced by Le Corbusier’s theories, while the artists are guided by the theme of “dissonances” and present work that opposes the theories.
      Fabrice Hyber created an oil painting for the “dissonances” space. Photo is by Maison Mounton NoirIn the first room, a brutalist yellow chair by Italian designer Pietro Franceschini is displayed alongside other work, including a geometric bronze candlestick crafted with clean lines by Californian fashion designer Owens.

      “For the ‘resonances’ room, I selected sculptural designers that are deeply influenced by Le Corbusier,” Galerie Philia co-founder Ygaël Attali told Dezeen.
      “Le Corbusier’s theory, especially in his writings published in the 1920s, was provocative and militant both in his refusal of decoration without functionality, his industrial-inspired aesthetic, and his clear and marked difference between fine arts and design.”
      A brutalist yellow chair by Pietro Franceschini features. Photo is by LodoclickAlso featured in this space are pieces such as a chunky daybed by Belgian designer Arno Declercq crafted from patinated and raw steel with sheep’s wool.
      Contrastingly, the “dissonances” room includes pieces by artists that intend to question Le Corbusier’s theories. For example, artist Flora Temnouche created three abstract oil paintings featuring organic or curved forms with soft lines.

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      “Le Corbusier’s theory almost denies a particular relationship with nature,” Temnouche told Dezeen. “My paintings show the inertia of the plant, diminished under the influence of humans.”
      “I was inspired by the idea of this meager relationship that persists despite everything in Le Corbusier’s work and theories.”
      Jojo Corväiá designed a table using volcanic clay. Photo is by Maison Mounton NoirOther works in this room range from an eclectic table by visual artist Jojo Corväiá crafted from volcanic clay and an ethereal, blown-glass light sculpture by Jérôme Pereira.
      “All of the works in one way or another are an answer to Le Corbusier’s theoretical and aesthetic heritage, either as a mark of resistance or a touching homage to his legacy,” concluded Attali.
      The exhibition intends to echo its location. Photo is by Maison Mounton NoirHéritages takes place until July at Le Corbusier’s modernist housing complex Cité Radieuse to coincide with the building’s 70th anniversary.
      Galerie Philia is an international contemporary design and art gallery with locations in Geneva, New York City and Singapore.
      Previous Galerie Philia exhibitions include a show that presented Latin American and European sculptural design and an exhibition of furniture by emerging Italian designers created in response to the work of Owens.
      The photography is by Lodoclick and Maison Mouton Noir.
      Héritages takes place at Kolektiv Cité Radieuse, Unité d’Habitation Le Corbusier, Marseille, France, until 2 July 2022. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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      Space Caviar creates “liquid landscape” inside Uzbekistan pavilion at Venice Art Biennale

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      Italian studio Space Caviar has constructed Dixit Algorizmi: The Garden of Knowledge, an indoor garden with reflective steel steps for the Uzbekistan pavilion at this year’s Venice Art Biennale.

      The installation at the Uzbekistan National Pavilion mirrors the interiors of the Quarta Tesa, an old shipbuilding warehouse at the Arsenale – one of the international contemporary art exhibition’s two main sites.
      Dixit Algorizmi: The Garden of Knowledge is the country’s first pavilion at the Venice Art BiennaleThe layout of the 500-square-metre garden is informed by the garden at the House of Wisdom, an academic centre in 9th-century Baghdad where medieval scholars, including the renowned Persian mathematician Muhammad al-Khwarizmi, studied.
      Visitors at the 59th Venice Art Biennale can walk across the shiny floor of the installation and sit on glossy steps around what resemble traditional water basins.
      Space Caviar drew on the forms of historic Islamic gardens”Gardens are very important in the tradition of Islam and the Arabic tradition in many parts of Central Asia,” said Joseph Grima, co-founder of architectural research studio Space Caviar.

      “While today we’re accustomed to thinking of buildings and enclosed spaces such as research labs and universities as the space for the production of knowledge, in the days of al-Khwarizmi, gardens were typically the points of encounters, of discussion,” Grima told Dezeen.
      The pavilion is inside the Venice ArsenaleSpace Caviar constructed the interiors of Uzbekistan’s first pavilion at the Biennale in Venice from pine wood and sheets of stainless steel, which Grima chose to create the illusion of water.
      The material choice also means that when the installation is dismantled at the end of the seven-month-long Biennale, the steel can be melted and turned back into metal sheets once again.
      Stainless steel covers the floor”Stainless steel was chosen to create the effect of walking on water — one of the perceptions that you have when you are inside the pavilion is that you are in a liquid landscape,” Grima explained.
      “This was one of the effects that we wanted to achieve with the pavilion, we wanted to create a landscape that was kind of a miracle, that suggested a dream more than a literal garden,” he added.
      “We see it as a technologically augmented landscape in that sense.”

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      Throughout the Venice Art Biennale, the Uzbekistan pavilion will host a program of workshops and public events on the history of technological development in art with digital artists such as Andrés Reisinger.
      Visitors will also be able to listen to Uzbek piano compositions against a backdrop of floral sculptures and hanging clouds of sea lavender by Berlin-based Studio Mary Lennox.
      The steel will be melted into sheets and reused when the pavilion is dismantled”We tried to transform our pavilion into an Islamic garden so that visitors could sit by the water, listen to various sounds, smell the air and enjoy the botanic installation,” said Gayane Umerova, executive director of the art and culture development foundation under the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
      “The Islamic garden is a place of rest and reflection par excellence, it provides means for contemplation through sensory experience – aromas, plants, water,” she told Dezeen.
      “Undulating waters and ambiguous lines together with plants and smooth surfaces offer a meditative yet contemporary attitude to the interior of the pavilion, bringing together traditions and new technologies,” she continued.
      Bunches of sea lavender hang from the ceilingGenoa-based Space Caviar was founded by Joseph Grima and Tamar Shafrir in 2013. The studio focuses on the intersection between design, technology, critical theory and the public space.
      Previous projects have included an algorithmic journalism machine that produces magazines on the fly and an exhibition at Biennale Interieur that explored how perspectives on the home have changed over time.
      Last year Grima took part in the Dezeen 15 virtual festival, where he proposed a new type of non-extractive architecture that conserves the earth’s resources.
      Photography is by Gerda Studio.
      Project credits:Curation: Space Caviar and Sheida GhomashchiCommissioner: Gayane Umerova
      Venice Art Biennale takes place from April 23 to November 27 in Venice. See Dezeen Events Guide for up-to-date details of architecture and design events around the world.

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      Ten homes with interiors designed to showcase art

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      For our next lookbook, we have selected 10 interiors from the Dezeen archive that have been designed to show off the owners’ art collections. The homes were designed for art collectors, professionals and enthusiasts to showcase their art collections. Each one has a distinct style, with some boasting minimal gallery-like interiors, while others champion a busy […] More