Points of view
By Tom Howells
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Cultural cross-pollination and real-world impact at the V&A South Kensington
For 2024, the V&A’s diverse programme of events for LDF explore how design can shape spaces, foster rituals and bring people together, by way of an enlightening array of installations delving into global cultures.
The programme – led by Meneesha Kellay, senior curator, contemporary, and devised in collaboration with other V&A curators – sees fascinating throughlines of cultural cross-pollination, explored across a range of themes and the work of a host of multifaceted designers, all drawing on the V&A’s holistic purview.
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“This year is about exploring global cultures through design practices from around the world,” says contemporary programme curator Carrie Chan. “We have a strong focus on diaspora designers as well in the UK. We were drawn to this idea of exploring origins, rituals and heritage through material investigations.”
Of particular pan-cultural interest are installations by two British Ghanaian creatives. Giles Tettey Nartey’s ‘Communion’ explores the making of fufu, a dish of pounded cassava and plantain that’s a staple in west African cuisine. His approach sees the everyday process – undertaken with a large mortar (woduro) and pestle (woma) – reconfigured into an ecstatic, dance-like performance (literally, in the case of the performance happening for the LDF at the V&A preview on 13 September) with an approximation of the communal act of pounding at its core.
‘Un-hide: Reframing Luxury’, meanwhile, is an interactive leather-seating series by Kusheda Mensah’s Modular by Mensah brand. It explores the traditional role of this durable material and its sustainable potential, as well as reconceiving it as a playful medium for fostering social connections. “Giles and Kusheda’s work is not just about the materiality, but also about shaping spaces for people to come together, to share spaces and to understand the cultures of these two designers,” explains Chan.
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‘Barricade and Beacon’, presented by the V&A+RIBA Architecture Partnership and the London architects Studio Bark, explores the meeting of architecture and activism in lobbying for social progress by way of two structures: ‘Barricade’, fashioned from Studio Bark’s flat-packed construction panels; and ‘Beacon’, made from bamboo in a design by the protest group Extinction Rebellion, evoking the symbiotic crossover of the worlds of design and political engagement.
Finally, the V&A’s Emerging Design Commission sees three young impresarios investigate the concept of origin through their practices. Kenya-born Arjun Singh Assa creates conceptual furniture inspired by Sikh architecture and ancestral knowledge through craft; the Taiwanese designer Liang-Jung Chen is analysing physical barriers as a design object; and the British Jamaican designer Angela Ford explores raw materials from a decolonial perspective using her family’s DNA.
On the surface, the V&A may appear to be an institution with a strong focus on historical objects. But this year’s contemporary programme squarely brings an affecting, diverse, multicultural vision of design’s future to South Kensington.
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