New Designers 07: The Country in the City, by Goldsmiths design graduate Alex Brown, combines industrial fire safety glass with references to traditional embriodery techniques.
The project is reminiscent of Lace Fence by Dutch designers Demakersvan.
The work is on show at the New Designers show in London until 15 July. Below is Alex's statement about the project:
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The 'rural idyll' and 'urban sprawl' present extremes in which people, like the swallows in my work, migrate. Many people perform this migration daily, traveling great distances to work in the urban, and live in the rural - particularly when it comes to working in London.
It helps to keep clear the fact that the meaning of both the ‘urban’ and the rural, are quite clearly socially constructed. Therefore, if the boundary cannot be physically drawn to any conclusive satisfaction, it would be naive to draw one intellectually. [Savage, Warde 1993]
My work is about taking the effectual virtues of the countryside, and seeing how design could encourage them in the urban environment. Virtues such as close-knit communities, (often maintained by window twitching), which allow the country to exist within the urban space.
The part of my project featured in New Designers incorporates industrial fire safety glass as a method for creating decoration within the urban space.
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