Studio Job, 'Perished' bench, (Job Smeets, born Belgium, 1970; Nynke Tynagel, born Netherlands, 1977), 2006, Laser-cut rosewood and bird's-eye maple
Edition of 6, Collection artist, Belgium.

Julia Lohmann (born West Germany, 1977), 'Lasting Void' stool, 2007, Reinforced fibreglass, Edition of 12 for Galerie Kreo, Paris, Lent by Julia Lohmann, London. To create this stool Lohmann cast the internal cavity of a dead calf. "My subject is not art," she argues. "I am concerned with design and its material origins," in this case our relationship with animals as a source of food and materials.

The Fig Leaf wardrobe, 2008 Designed by Tord Boontje © Meta.

Sculpt wardrobe, 2007 Maarten Baas © Maarten Baas. Courtesy of Carpenters Workshop Gallery. Photograph Maarten van Houten.

Victoria & Albert Museum
Cromwell Road
+44 (0)20 7942 2000
London
Porter Gallery
Telling Tales:
Fantasy and Fear
in Contemporary Design
July 14-October 18, 2009

At a time of heightened interest in works of so-called "design art," made in small editions for the collector's market, Telling Tales features work by a generation of internationally regarded designers. The exhibition focuses on work by designers who explore the narrative potential of objects, connecting the past with the present. The exhibition is structured in three sections — In The Forest Glade — design that evokes the innocence of fairy-stories, notably the work of Tord Boontje. The Enchanted Castle is inspired by the rise of the novel and prints in the 18th century, and features design that parodies and questions decorative taste, exemplified by the work of Studio Job and Maarten Baas. Heaven and Hell is informed by psychoanalysis and the work reflects anxieties about our mortality. Designers in this section included Dunne & Raby and Miriam van der Lubbe and Niels van Eijk.

On show are two recent V&A acquisitions. Maarten Baas’s Smoke Mirror is part of his Smoke Furniture series created by burning reproductions of antique furniture with a blowtorch to produce a charred effect. Lathe Chair VIII by Sebastian Brajkovic is an exaggerated love seat seemingly made from a single 19th-century chair stretched into two.

Alongside is Jeroen Verhoeven’s Cinderella table, Julian Mayors’s Clone chair, ceramics by Hella Jongerius and Joris Laarman’s Heatwave radiator based on rococo scrollwork.

The final section, Heaven and Hell displays work by designers concerned with themes of mortality and the afterlife. The Lovers rug by Fredrikson Stallard comprises a pair of conjoined pools of poured red urethane representing the average quantity of blood in two people.

Some of the designers in this section reference historical depictions of The Last Judgement or Dante’s Inferno. An example is Luc Merx’s The Fall of the Damned chandelier made up of a cloud of around 170 weightless and tumbling human figures suspended in mid air. Others reflect an interest in psychoanalysis, such as Joep van Lieshout’s Sensory Deprivation Skull, a large skull-shaped, fur-lined chamber to accommodate two people. These objects appear together with work by Dunne & Raby, Niels van Eijk and Miriam van der Lubbe and Boym Partners.

Gareth Williams said: “This exhibition aims to capture a way of designing that has been emerging in recent years. These objects have stories to tell and we wanted to present some of the most creative and innovative examples and explore common themes.”

Exhibition designers are Nissen Adams who, together with lighting designer Zerlina Hughes, create a dramatic setting for each section. In The Forest Glade a background of printed gauze screens and dappled lighting evoke the forests of myths and fairytales. A distorted palatial atmosphere is the setting for The Enchanted Castle. Spot lit objects and diagonal walls create a disconcerting Heaven and Hell.

Buildings of Disaster, Boym Partners
(Constantin Boym, born Soviet Union, 1955; Laurene Leon Boym, born USA, 1964), 1995-present, Bonded metal.

Venus and Mars chair and mirror
Boym Partners (Constantin Boym, born Soviet Union, 1955; Laurene Leon Boym, born USA, 1964), 2006.

Lathe chairs VIII, 2008 Sebastian Brajkovic © Sebastian Brajkovic. Courtesy of Carpenters Workshop Gallery.