International design outlet, The Future Perfect will present Fragments as part of the Design Curio programme at Design Miami/, which runs from December 2nd - 6th, 2015. The installation includes new and exclusively commissioned work from Dutch designer Lex Pott and New York-based Calico Wallpaper. David Alhadeff, the founder of The Future Perfect described Lex Pott and Calico wallpaper as “two rising stars on the global design scene."
Fragments 'Round Mountain' dining table by Lex Pott for The Future Perfect. One of the pieces on show at Design Miami from 2-6th of December.
Fragments displays Pott's massive new works in stone against a backdrop of a delicate handmade gradient wallcovering by Nicholas and Rachel Cope of Calico Wallpaper. The wall design will be hand-applied on-site at Design Miami/ allowing visitors to see the process as it develops. Fragments features four new Lex Pott furniture pieces and a series of small accessories. Three of furniture designs are made in Belgian Bluestone, while a fourth piece, a bookshelf, is composed of multiple layers of coloured marbles: Nero Marquina, Verde Rajasthan, Rouge, Giallo Reale, and Bianco Carrara - all sourced from the same quarry as the rest of the collection. The genesis of the idea behind collection came from the way rock breaks along natural lines in the material creating unpredictable shapes. The work then uses the contrast between the natural broken forms and the more conventional beauty of highly polished slabs.
'Fragments' dining table in green granite. The solid stone table is two metres long and ninety centimetres wide.
Based in Amsterdam, Pott employs a raw and intuitive method in his work. Mostly working in wood, stone and metal, he prefers to leave materials exposed in their natural state or after his intervention with a particular process, rather than applying standard decorative finishes of any kind.
The man himself - Lex Pott.
Pott works from his studio in an old shipyard and often employs highly industrial processes such as sandblasting and acid etching. He graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven in 2009 and came to world attention with his chemically altered mirror designs ‘Transcience’, developed with David Derksen in 2011. Since then Pott has continued his explorations into ways of treating metals to change their colour and patina - particularly copper and brass - and has produced collections in sandblasted timber for Dutch gallery, New Window in 2014.
'Column' coffee table from try Fragments collection by Lex Pott for The Future Perfect.
Pott is the newest addition to the ever growing roster of designers at The Future Perfect that in addition to the bigger names includes emerging names such as Paris studio POOL, Steven Haulenbeek from Michigan, Italo Russian designer Ilia Potemine and Christian Woo from Vancouver. Alhadeff founded The Future Perfect in 2003 in Brooklyn, but now has his showroom and gallery in Manhattan and has opened a new branch in San Francisco. From its inception, the gallery has featured works from a range of well known American designers such as Lindsey Adelman and Jason Miller but also promotes talent from around the globe. While representing the limited edition works of designers such as Neri & Hu, Simon Hassan, Matthew Hilton and Luca Nichetto, it also carries a carefully curated selection of production furniture and lighting pieces by innovative brands such as SCP, Gubi. Flos and Menu.
'Twin' coffee table from the Fragments collection by Lex Pott for The Future Perfect.
Invited by Alhadeff to create an artistic wallcovering for Fragments, Calico Wallpaper developed a unique process whereby pigments from the same stone as used in Pott's work is hand-applied to a fine linen substrate. The end result is a gradient in a complementary tone to Pott's stone pieces that gradually fades to a natural linen color as the viewer moves their gaze towards the ceiling. The pigments are mixed with mica, which adds depth and luster to the finish, causing the design to exhibit a subtle shimmering quality. Painters from the Calico Wallpaper studio will be wearing jumpsuits in the same Belgian linen as the wallcovering, and over the course of the exhibition it is likely that these will take on the pigment from the painting process, blurring the line between wall covering, furniture and the artisans.
Nicholas and Rachel Cope of Calico Wallpaper.
"We are very excited to debut this new collection with The Future Perfect and honored to show our work alongside Lex Pott's beautifully crafted pieces," says Nicholas Cope, co-founder of Calico Wallpaper. "We have always wanted to create a bespoke collection of handmade wallcoverings, and Design Curio at Design Miami/ presents the perfect opportunity to showcase this new direction for our work."
Calico Wallpaper designs bespoke wallpapers combining artisanal methods from the decorative arts, like marbling and dip-dying techniques, along side innovative digital technologies.
The company was founded in Brooklyn, in 2013 by Nicholas and Rachel Cope and has rapidly gained a large international following since they started exhibiting their collections at the events such as the London Design Festival and at Rossana Orlandi during Salone del Mobile in Milan. The duo have also shown recently at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art..
Calico Wallpaper's 'Night' wallcovering. Shimmering Obsidian was the inspiration.
While official imagery of the new Fragments wall coverings are yet to be taken, the overall style of the new design will have something in common with the graduated effect found in their 'Aurora' collection but with an even more subtle graduation of tone. The hand application of the stone pigments will also provide a much more earthy quality that will compliment Pott's monumental stone pieces.
The 'Lunaris' collection by Calico Wallpaper was inspired by moonscape photography.
Known for their highly detailed wallpapers with incredible veining and colour shifts, this move to a fabric substrate with hand applied pigments is an interesting departure.
'Aurora' is the most recent collection of papers from Calico Wallpaper. The range offers a soft graduation through subtle colours.
A little teaser of what the Fragments wallcovering will possibly look like - graduating through dark grey to natural linen from the floor to the ceiling. Rachell and Nicholas try on their linen aprons for the camera.
Fragments will be on show at booth C03 at Design Miami, 2nd until the 6th of December.
Following Design Miami/, additional works from the Fragments collection by Lex Pott and the Fragments wallcoverings by Calico Wallpaper will be available for sale exclusively through The Future Perfect.
Update 6/12/15
With Design Miami almost over D.d is now able to show the finished result of the Fragments concept. Beautifully executed the Calico Wallpaper wallcovering is reminiscent of Chinese paintings on silk with their soft blurring of landscape. What a fitting backdrop for the monumental solidity of Lex Pott's furniture.
The finished installation of Fragments by Lex Pott & Calico Wallpaper for The Future Perfect - Design Miami