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The show Spectral Landscapes: The Fusion of Organic and Futuristic Design marked Charles Burnand Gallery's first foray at PAD London this year. On view from October 8 - 13, 2024, the innovative design exhibition merged the natural with the avante-garde, establishing a captivating dialogue between organic forms and futuristic aesthetics. The design gallery's showcase featured works by prominent studios, artists and product designers including Dawn Bendick, DEGLAN, denHolm, Studio Furthermore, Mia Jung, Kyeok Kim, Heechan Kim, Yanxiong Lin, Ian Milnes, Jean Gabriel Neukomm, Raven & Lack and Reynold Rodriguez. Each participant offered a unique interpretation of the intersection between the organic and the futuristic, using their novel design languages to explore this dynamic fusion.
Delving into the realm of biomimicry, Kyeok Kim presented forms crafted with copper wire that echo nature's elegance while embracing traditional materials and techniques to reimagine materiality. "Kim's Second Skin series explored the boundaries between body and environment, creating tactile, organic forms which challenge perceptions of identity, reflecting the fluidity of self and the transformation of the body," the gallery’s press release notes.
The alien-like forms conceived by 2024 LOEWE Foundation Craft Prize finalist Heechan Kim offered a wholly unique perspective on working with wood veneer. Untitled 18, a monumental hanging piece of sculptural art, showcased Kim's original design language—"the likes of which have never been seen," according to the gallery.
Similarly, Yanxiong Lin's furniture designs and objects from his inaugural collection, A Window to the Past, struck a balance between the familiar and the future. These were "somehow familiar in form, acknowledging the present, a nod to the past, but looking to the future and creating works of another dimension, time and civilisation," they add. Working exclusively with wood, Washi paper and Urushi lacquer, Lin's product designs challenged social and cultural dynamics through the careful selection of materials, forms and processes.
Steven John Clark, founder and creative director of Australia-based denHolm, has come to be known for his distinctive aesthetic blending traditional craftsmanship with experimental forms inspired by high fashion and design innovation. Working with solid limestone, denHolm’s Sister Dead Mental Table added a tactile dimension to the show at the design event, embodying the raw beauty of organic materials transformed through inventive processes.
Las Once y Once, the handmade plaster console table design by Reynold Rodriguez features anthropomorphic, alien-like forms evoking an atmosphere reminiscent of Salvador Dalí's dreamscapes. The slender necks and lamps morphing from the tabletop capture this essence of surrealism, merging fantasy and reality to create a functional art piece that felt both 'otherworldly and iconic'.
Crafted from lime plaster and basalt, DEGLAN's monumental Boulder Low Table 1+1 XXL employs cutting-edge technology, resulting in a work "that is both familiar and otherworldly," as Charles Burnand Gallery relays. The use of lime plaster mixed with basalt for the piece references the familiar while questioning our perception of modern-day materials.
Jean Gabriel Neukomm's Nephelepsis Chandelier juxtaposes sleek, futuristic lines with organic fluidity. The sculptural design cleverly combines fragments of mica sheets and light to create a chandelier unlike any other. In parallel, Ian Milnes' work offered a glimpse into the future of design and making, with his never-before-seen Broken Tulips, characterised by experimental approaches and unexpected material combinations.
Dawn Bendick’s mesmerising dichroic glass sculptures created an illusion of bioluminescence for Spectral Landscapes, channelling the ethereal qualities of light and colour merging, in tandem with bridging the gap between the natural and the synthetic. Raven & Lack's Bracciale Sconce, made of cast bronze and hand-poured glass, draws on ancient, noble materials to proffer a distinctly tribal appearance, and was yet "almost magically lit, giving it a futuristic spin," the London-based gallery describes.
The Diode Dining Table, Studio Furthermore's premiere piece, encapsulated the essence of the exhibition at PAD London 2024. Employing recycled aluminium car wheels that are melted and reformed, the duo embraces the old to create the new. The dining table's unusual finish results in a sophisticated fusion of organic inspiration and futuristic vision, prompting viewers to reconsider the materiality and sustainability of contemporary collectible designs.
With the Cloud Mirror, Mia Jung, a New York-based South Korean designer, stayed true to her design aesthetic. Simple in form, the mirror is cast from a single piece of glass, sandblasted, acid-etched and finished with 24-carat gold. The result is a reflective surface that offers no practical reflection but encourages contemplation.
Spectral Landscapes invited visitors on a sensory journey at PAD London this year, challenging conventional design paradigms. Through the exhibits, the show presented the limitless possibilities which arise when nature, technology, artistry and innovative design converge. As Charles Burnand Gallery conveys, "Through this immersive experience, Spectral Landscapes celebrates the innovative spirit of contemporary design, offering a glimpse into a future where organic beauty and futuristic innovation coexist in perfect harmony."
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