London Design Festival 09: Gallery FUMI and Studio Toogood have collaborated to present Corn Craft, a corn-inspired installation featuring one-off pieces by designers Nacho Carbonell, Raw Edges, Rowan Mersh, Max Lamb and Gemma Holt.

The exhibition aims to demonstrate how inexpensive materials, in this case corn, can be transformed into sustainable design through craft traditions.

To launch the exhibition, the organisers staged a conceptual dining event based on Harvest Festival, with a corn-based menu designed by The Modern Pantry.

Yael Mer and Shay Alkalay of Raw Edges Design Studio created a table (above) where sheafs of barley are held in wooden frames.

Rowan Mersh's decorative installation (above) comprises over 40,000 individual pieces of corn attached to mono-filament line.

Alpha glass by Max Lamb and Gemma Holt (above), is mouth-blown by Lobmeyr craftsmen and engraved with a small barley-shaped detail.

Nacho Carbonell's Crop (above and below) strives to recreate a space found within the density of a field of corn.

The exhibition continues until 27 September.

Photographs are by Tom Mannion.

Further details from Gallery Fumi and Studio Toogood:

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Corn Craft
Created by Gallery FUMI & Studio Toogood

Corn Craft aims to elevate the agrarian through design intervention, transforming grain from inexpensive raw material to refined design. In a bid to revive forgotten folk craft, a select group of contemporary designers were asked to capture the beauty of corn in its various forms. The result is this collection of one-off, site-specific pieces that aim to celebrate its value as a design material and its potential power for sustainability.

A long table by Raw-Edges Design Studio has been designed to mimic a cornfield, made of bearded wheat, oats and barley stalks, and set in old wooden display cabinets. This is showcased alongside Crop, a collection of one-off pieces by Naco Carbonell, and a site-specific installation of hanging, garland-like strands of wheat by Rowan Mersh.

To launch the exhibition, Gallery Fumi and Studio Toogood staged a conceptual dining event based on the Pagan festival of thanks, the Harvest Festival. The Modern Pantry recast corn in a literal and an abstract way, creating an experimenatl menu of corn-based recipes served by waiters dressed in corn dolly-inspired adornments. Each guest left with a bespoke crystal and tumbler detailed with engravings by Max Lamb and Gemma Holt for Lobmeyr.

Creative Direction: Studio Toogood
Design Commisions: Gallery Fumi
Food Concept: The Modern Pantry
Product Design: Raw Edges Design Studio, Nacho Carbonell, Max Lamb and Gemma Holt
Spatial Installation: Rowan Mersh
Graphic Design: Teresa Lima
Lighting supplied by Retrouvius

Works

Rowan Mersh
‘Untitled’
2009
bearded wheat, wheat, barley, oats, mono-filament line

A site specific installation that encapsulates the spirit of rural England’s rolling hills. Over 40 000 individual pieces of corn, strung onto mono-filament line, were utilised in the creation of this three dimensional landscape.

Raw-Edges Design Studio
‘Wheat Table’
2009
dry wheat, wood, pegboard

A domesticated indoor field which made of dry wheat ‘planted’ squarely inside overlapping wooden frames. White ceramics dished are put on the wheat as if they were floating.

Nacho Carbonell
‘Crop’
2009
corn resin, corn juice, ground corn, barley, wheat, oats, cornflakes, steel rod reinforcements

With this collection named ‘Crop’, the intention is to simulate a space inside a corn field, a space you need to find. For that we created an installation that consists of several pieces inspired by the colors, movement and lushness of the corn. The pieces were built using the materials found in the field, which dictated their final textures and colours. Each of them is then placed together, creating an intimate space.

Max Lamb, Gemma Holt
‘Alpha’ glass
2009
glass

A citrin Alpha glass mouth-blown by Lobmeyr craftsmen. A tiny stone wheel carefully sharpened to a shallow mitre.!e gentle but skillful act of a nudge upon the glass’ surface creates a barley shaped engraving, the grain of the stone like fibres of the barley husk.

Location:
16 Hoxton Square
Second Floor Flat
N1 6NT
(Above the Hoxton Apprentice Restaurant)
Until the 27 September