Exhibition Details

GROWTH + FORM
From 7 to 30 September, FUMI staged a major group show bringing together brand-new pieces of functional art by its roster of artists and designers. Curated by renowned design historian Libby Sellers, the exhibition will explore the theme of Growth + Form, with pieces looking at the 'dynamics between the inner and outer form: revealing the growth patterns of an object or material, and transformation through adaptation and regeneration'. The concept of the exhibition was inspired by the works of biologist D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson (1860-1948), specifically his 1917 publication On Growth and Form: A Poetic and Mathematical Study of living forms 'sprouting, ballooning, and metamorphosing into mathematically harmonious shapes'.
Tapping into the creative affinity between science and art, the pieces created for the show will display fluid organic forms, natural materials and geometric structures. Among highlights are Light Entanglements, a sculptural chandelier by Danish artist Stine Bidstrup, made of hand-blown clusters of glass; Marmaros Metamorphosis II, a sculpture by Rowan Mersh exemplifying his signature creative process of hand-assembling thousands of normally overlooked individual components; Copper Roots I, a floor light by British duo JAMESPLUMB, an evolution from their acclaimed Steel Roots series.
Dutch designer Bernadette Deddens and Japanese designer Tetsuo Mukai from Study O Portable will also unveil three seating installations inspired by the isometric grid system found in Sol LeWitt’s Incomplete Open Cube. Voukenas Petrides, the creative partnership formed by Greek designer Andreas Voukenas and American architect Steven Petrides, will showcase an organically-shaped chair in bronze. British designer Max Lamb has created two new pieces of furniture for the show, each made from a single log of timber and polished with linseed oil. British artist Leora Honeyman will present a bench in ceramic using unusual colouring techniques inspired by her celebrated Comfy Chair and American woodworker Casey McCafferty, a screen made of scrap wood from his workshop, with shapes inspired by human anatomy. Finally, Berlin-based designer Lukas Wegwerth will unveil a wooden cabinet featuring sculpted hand-coloured shingles, together with a vase from his Crystallisation Series, exemplifying the title of the show: Growth and Form.