sketch Art & Design

sketch, the iconic London destination, will return to the London Design Festival, bigger and bolder than ever after a two year hiatus. To mark the 20th anniversary of the Festival, sketch has commissioned the London-based designers Bethan Gray and Moritz Waldemeyer and architect Tannaz Oroumchi to create site-specific installations, each responding to the architecture of their distinct area of the expansive space and reimagining it through their own lens. In the Entrance, Bethan Gray will present the ‘Inky Dhow Universe’, a complete immersion in the designer’s kaleidoscopic world of cobalt blue and white stripes as they flow across walls, floors, furniture and accessories. Bethan’s signature pattern, influenced by the billowing sails of Omani dhow boats, will come vividly to life across a myriad of pieces, made in collaboration with her long-standing craft partners, against a backdrop of panels beautifully hand painted by the designer herself. The ‘Inky Dhow Universe’ will stage the London debut of Bethan’s new armchair and sofas from her Ripple modular furniture collection, upholstered with leather digitally printed by Bill Amberg, and her Orion Swirl range of handblown glass table lamps and pendant lights, designed and made in partnership with Murano-based lighting atelier Baroncelli. To complete the exhibit, Bethan will introduce a new console-style desk – finished with intricate marquetry by Shamsian and his Oman-based team of artisans; rugs woven with CC-Tapis; and Bethan’s hand-thrown and painted Seven Sisters vessels made in collaboration with Stoke-on-Trent-based 1882 Ltd. Tucked into one generous nook of the hallway which leads to The Gallery restaurant, Bethan will create an enveloping space where visitors will be welcome to sit, play and meditate. Moritz Waldemeyer will take over The Glade with ‘Through the Looking Glass’, a sculptural chandelier composed of 45 specially-designed LED lights which mimic flickering candles. Strikingly suspended from the ceiling in the centre of the room, the LED stems are framed by stylised magnifying glass, and pay homage to the flame as the first and only natural light source. With ‘Through the Looking Glass’, Moritz sets out to define a completely new form of LED lighting – with the playfulness, emotion and atmosphere of a candle – while always remaining low power and low impact on the environment. Fusing remarkable craftsmanship with state-of-the-art technology, Moritz’ statement piece, specially designed for sketch, takes cues from the past to reinvent the future. The Through the Looking Glass light piece is designed by Moritz under his Mori London label; he collaborated with Mayice Studio to create the magnifying glass frame. Tannaz Oroumchi will present ‘Change of Form’, a collection of over 50 large-scale architectural drawings in The Pods. Hand-drawn on architectural film, the intricately detailed drawings are based on the internationally-renowned aesthetic of sketch: there are no rules. Over multiple centuries, sketch’s rich history has included fashion, art and architecture, and now it’s present unites them all. Tannaz’s works are masterplans of micro, mezzo and macro scales of four cosmopolitan cites: London, Istanbul, Paris, New York; she makes sketch the epicentre of all by imagining and transporting the idea of sketch from London to other cities. Moreover, the pieces communicate key ideas of life and social constructs and their intersectionality with urban planning and architecture, while encouraging questioning of conventionality. Suspended low from the colourful glass ceiling of The Pods, the drawings will encourage interaction, discovery and connectivity with the building, the city and the world. To celebrate the three installations, sketch’s Bars Director Alena Cagnato will create three special cocktails, which will feature on the menus in The Glade and The Parlour during London Design Festival.