Premature Retrospective
Premature Retrospective
Design Museum, London
In 2001 my former studio, Foundation 33, was invited by London’s Design Museum to take part in a group show called Design Now—London. Each of the four exhibitors was assigned one of four large glass vitrines on the museum’s top floor to display work. It was the first show instigated by Alice Rawsthorn, the museum’s new director, and the first time the museum removed its old, crumbling permanent collection in favour of contemporary work.
At that time Foundation 33 had existed for only one and a bit years, so I called the show a Premature Retrospective 1999–2001 and exhibited all of my Royal College of Art projects, much of the Walker Art Center work, and the Multi Ply furniture made in collaboration with Sam Solhaug.
The exhibit consisted of two components: the glass vitrine in which all printed material was presented horizontally, conceptually echoing the 10.2 Multi Ply Coffee Table’s reorientation of plywood; and a platform with undulating heights that elevated the top surfaces of the Multi Ply tables to correspond with the glass vitrine’s horizontal surface.
