Design is a State of Mind Exhibition

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by Bryony Harrison (subscribe)

Freelance writer and poet from London; if you would like to read my poetry, please check out my book, 'Poems on the Page', available from goo.gl/Ta4oAX.

Event: 05/03/2014 - 21/04/2014

How we Shelve our Lives

design is a state of mind, martin gamper, serpentine gallery

Image from www.serpentinegalleries.org

large image

Everyone has different tastes. Walk into three people's living rooms, take a look at the nik naks on their shelves,and you'll soon see how widely we differ. It isn't just what's on the shelves, but the shelves themselves as well; some people like wood, others prefer stone, metal, or plastic.

In a new exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery, Italian designer, Martino Gamper explores our relationship with design objects through a landscape of shelving systems, which he has made for Design is a State of Mind.

Free to visit until the 21st April, the extensive array of shelves feature designs from the 1930s up to present day. From the industrial to the utilitarian to the contemporary, the exhibit highlights designs by Gaetano Pesce, Ettore Sottsass, Ercol, Gio Ponti, and IKEA. Gamper says:

There is no perfect design and there is no über-design. Objects talk to us personally. Some might be more functional than others, and the emotional attachment is very individual. This exhibition will showcase a very personal way of collecting and gathering objects – these are pieces that tell a tale.'

To fill his shelves, Gamper has asked his friends to contribute personal items, as well as objects from furniture manufacturing catalogues around the world.