‘Grandmateria III’ at Gallery Libby Sellers

5 September - 5 October '13

‘Grandmateria III’ is the next chapter of a story that began with the gallery’s launch exhibition during the London Design Festival 2007. The title alludes to the mythologies of the Philosopher's stone: a stone said to have alchemical powers to transmute lead into gold.

By working with modest materials, using materials out of context, or by layering the materials with rich narrative each of the selected designers elevate the ordinary to extraordinary effect. Amongst the works selected for ‘Grandmateria III’ are Peter Marigold’s bronze ‘Wooden’ vases, Liliana Ovalle’s red clay and oak ‘Sinkhole Vessels’, Paola Petrobelli’s ‘Nido’ glass designs and Lex Pott’s ‘True Colour’ copper shelves and vases.

Marigold’s ongoing series of ‘Wooden’ forms are made by pasting a piece of wood with hot wax to create an impression of the original wood. The wood is then moved to a new position and pasted again and again, blending it with the previous pieces so as to build up the form intuitively, creating an object that is both moulded, yet unique.

The wax form is then cast into either plaster or metal combining it into one singular material through one singular action – the resulting form becoming an amalgam of moments. For Marigold, “the forms are ‘wooden’ in that they have been created using wood rather than being made of wood. They therefore reference wood as an active verb rather than a monumental noun; the resulting forms highly animated and not ‘wooden’ at all”.