François Dumas Designs Seeds IV
François Dumas creates a display system that is both exhibit and exhibitor at the fourth Seeds exhibition in London, until May 20.
Marking Seeds’ first year as exhibitors and promoters of limited-edition design, its fourth exhibition explores “the curated commercial universe of Seeds”. Given the reflexive nature of the experimental London gallery, the result teases out the tensions between display and exhibit, retail and art, shop and gallery, back room and window space… Support/Surface. The exhibition name also refers to the eponymous short-lived but impactful French art movement that deconstructed painting after the 1968 protests.
François Dumas’s custom exhibition system exemplifies the exhibition’s self-reflexivity. Using 200m of extruded aluminium, the French designer has made podiums, lights, tables and consoles that both show off his colleagues’ objects, as well as being a sellable exhibit itself. Concept aside, it is quite the technical feat too – because the curves cannot be made mechanically, repeated delicate cuts are made in the metal to facilitate the flex.
Curated by Studio Vedèt, other work on show includes a lamp that combines vintage glass objects with modern LED technology by Studio Furthermore, a celestially-inspired light by Os ∆ Oos, the fascinating mass shelf and table by Odd Matter Studio, and 3D-printed ceramic vases by Olivier van Herpt. Other exhibitors include Jochen Holz, Daphna Laurens, Oeuffice, Giovanni De Francesco, Laetitia de Allegri + Matteo Fogale, David Derksen, Studio Berg, Apparatus, Marlene Huissoud, Formafantasma, Sabine Marcelis, Duccio Maria Gambi, Guglielmo Poletti, Silo Studio, Kueng Caputo and Dan Yeffet.