Dutch designer Aldo Bakker has curated an exhibition at Gallery Libby Sellers in London that presents his products alongside complimentary pieces from the gallery’s inventory.
Gallery Libby Sellers invited Aldo Bakker to select works from its collection that share materials or details with his own and present these as a way “to create interesting conversations, connections and juxtapositions between the two.”
Bakker chose pieces by Formafantasma, Max Lamb, Julia Lohmann, Peter Marigold, Jonathan Muecke and Lex Pott, and says that he was interested in seeing his work alongside that of designers such as Lamb and Marigold because of their contrasting working methods.
“Both Max and Peter work in the moment, their works comes to existence by doing,” Bakker told Dezeen. “In my case, the moment is dissolved in the whole, and you do not see many traces of the process of making.”
Materials that recur often in Bakker’s work, including metal, wood, glass and ceramic, are also prevalent in the works that he chose for the show.
“Contrary to a solo exhibition, a group show offers more entrances to the different works, and most likely enables the viewer to see the objects more clearly and precisely because of the oppositions,” Bakker explains. “I hope that the differences between the works will help visitors understand them better.”
At the 2010 Milan Furniture Fair Bakker presented a series of copper objects, including a tubular watering can that features in the exhibition.
Spaces in Between is at Gallery Libby Sellers until 14 December 2013.
Here’s are some more details from the gallery:
Spaces in Between
15 October – 14 December 2013
Gallery Libby Sellers is pleased to present Spaces In Between – a group show curated by the award-winning designer Aldo Bakker.
Contemplation and communication are at the heart of Bakker’s practice; his works in wood, metal, glass and ceramic are rigorously considered and purposely provoke reaction from the end user. By way of highlighting this, and to initiate a dialogue with the gallery, Bakker was invited to select objects from both the gallery’s existing works and his own extensive repertoire in order to create interesting conversations, connections and juxtapositions between the two.
Having had free access to the gallery’s entire inventory, Bakker’s choices confirm his position as an arbiter of materials, detail and form. His final selection comprises works by Formafantasma, Max Lamb, Julia Lohmann, Peter Marigold, Jonathan Muecke and Lex Pott – and each will be presented as counterpoints with specific designs from Bakker’s own works. While Bakker will introduce these interchanges between objects, it will be left to the visitor to bring their own interpretations and translations to the conversations.
Bakker (b.1971) views his designs as the work of a ‘vormgever’, which in Dutch literally means ‘giver of form’. As he says, “both in my language and in my form, I choose to approach ‘authenticity’ and ‘originality’ very precisely and I allow my designs to acquire physical shape only when I deem them to be ‘autonomous entities’”. His work can be found in international public collections, including Vitra (Germany), the Victoria & Albert Museum (London), the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), Museum Boijmans van Beuningen (Rotterdam), the Zuiderzee Museum (Enkhuizen) and the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum (New York). He has collaborated with clients including Thomas Eyck, Izé, Sèvres, Nodus and Wallpaper*. Bakker was the recipient of the 2012 Z33 Architecture Competition Award, and has also won Wallpaper* Design Awards for ‘Best Stool’ and ‘Best Use of Material’ (2011). He lives and works in Amsterdam and is a tutor at the Design Academy Eindhoven.
Opening times: Tuesday – Friday, 11am – 6pm Saturday, 11am – 4pm
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