Secondary Function Exhibition
Partner Programme
15 — 21 Sept 2025
Craft, Interiors & Furniture, Multi-Disciplinary Design, Fashion & Textiles, Art / Collectibles, Materials
15 Sept18:00—20:30
16 Sept10:30—18:30
17 Sept10:30—18:30
18 Sept10:30—18:30
19 Sept10:30—18:30
20 Sept10:30—18:30
21 Sept10:30—18:30
In Person
Free, no ticket required
Alsolike
16 Chance Street
London
E2 7JB
#alsolikegallery
"Secondary Function", a week-long exhibition as part of the London Design Festival 2025. The exhibition will take place at Alsolike Gallery, located in Shoreditch, London. Exhibition Schedule: Private View: 15 September, 18:00–20:30 Public Opening: 16–21 September, 10:30–18:00
Since the 1980s, de-functionalization has emerged across disciplines as a form of resistance against normative systems, with artists often abandoning utility to pursue purely spiritual or conceptual expression. However, unlike other artistic mediums, function maintains a deeper and more enduring bond with applied arts—continually cycling between the centre and the periphery of discourse. Through successive acts of decoding, function has gradually shifted from a question of how something is used to how it organizes action, expanding into a broader framework for agency. This exhibition focuses on the vitality of function in contemporary practice. Function can serve as an active strategy to challenge visual centrism, guiding audiences to perceive works through multiple sensory and spatial dimensions; It can act as a central axis, connecting the viewer with their surrounding environment to co-construct broader narrative fields; It can also serve as an entry point for cultural inquiry—revealing behavioural patterns that reflect deeper questions of culture, relationally and material politics. We invite your work to respond to the question: After function withdraws, in what ways does it return?
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