Steam-print by Michiel Martens & Jetske Visser
Press Release - August 2018
Colour Via: is an exploration of next generation material colouring processes. Featuring eight pioneering designers and companies who are responding thoughtfully to the complex questions posed by waste and toxicity, this exhibition looks forward to vibrant and sustainable material futures.
In an exciting collaboration between Surface Matter, a leading authority on materials innovation and application and Laura Perryman Founder of Colour of Saying - a London-based consultancy specialising in experiential colour and materials design. Colour Via: opens up discussion around new opportunities and directions for sustainable design and will be an opportunity to experience new colour processes as they emerge.
Recolored by Jessica de Hartdog
“Everything on display either limits waste or has a sensitive approach to colour production”
explains Colour and Materials Designer and Trends Forecaster Laura Perryman, Founder of Colour of Saying and curator of Colour Via:“Colouring a material can completely change it’s perception,usage and value but as our consumption of materials has grown we’ve seen colour being applied ever more mechanically to surfaces, degrading our experience of colour and marring our environment.”
This exhibition will bring together the fresh and important voices of designers who are challenging mass colour manufacture and crossing industry boundaries in pursuit of more considered practices and cleaner applications.
Featuring:
Living Colour Collective
Jessica de Hartdog
Charlotte Kidger
Agne Kucerenkaite
Liga Studio
Llot Llov
Martens & Visser
Mirrl
Waste metal colouring techniques, Ignorance is Bliss by Agne Kucerenkaite
“The presence of CMD [Colour, Material, Design] as an established design discipline is transforming the way we make colour process choices.” says Perryman, “Colour Via: is a platform for those visionary designers who are working intelligently with circular methods and conscientious applications.”
Efficient forms of printed colour by Liga Studio
Every exhibit has been selected by Perryman for its illustration of a significant shift in how we think about, apply and create colour and will highlight one or more of the exhibition’s sub-themes:
Reductionism
Responsible Acts
Control & Coincidence
Embracing the Future
Reductionism will explore elegant and efficient approaches to colour-led waste limitation. Michiel Martens & Jetske Visser will be showing textiles that, in a conscious recasting of the very fuel of the industrial revolution, use steam to simultaneously create and fix colour onto silk. “The created patterns and shapes” Visser explains, “are the imprint of the steam on the fabric, records of an ephemeral moment.” This method of application results in tonal gradients that will be echoed in this section by the work of Liga Studio whose work neatly combines digital precision and play.
Metal waste tiles, Ignorance is Bliss by Agne Kucerenkaite
“Dialogue is no longer enough”
Responsible Acts will put colour to the fore of disruptive design, harnessing desire and sensorial colour experiences to incite change.
“Dialogue is no longer enough” says emerging designer Agne Kucerenkaite, who introduces colour to her ceramic glazes with metals extracted from industrially polluted soil and water. Jessica de Hartdog, is also interested in the reconciliation of moral and aesthetic principles, and will be showing joyful palettes that embrace the inherent colour histories of post-consumer waste.
Charlotte Kidger will complete this section with beguiling 3D forms that combine the pre-existing colours of polyurethane foam, a by-product of CNC fabrication, with applied resin pigments.
Salt colouration, Llot Llov
Control & Coincidence will offer insights into dynamic colour exploration. Llot Llov will be displaying finished furniture coloured via osmosis as well as hygroscopic colouration in process. “The colour range and variety of pattern” they say of their innovative technique, “is as endless as its applicability.” Joining Llot Llov are Glasgow-based Mirrl whose fully recyclable solid surfaces use marbled layers of eco resin inspired by Japanese craft techniques.
Embracing the Future, the final sub-theme, will present the case for an holistic approach to colouration that integrates biology and technology. In a compelling model for sustainable materiality, Faber Futures use bacteria to create coloured dyes without chemicals and with very little water. Visitors to Colour Via: will be able to see bacterial dyeing in progress, as well as samples of silk coloured by the natural pigmentation of Janthinobacterium Lividum.
Bacterial colour by Living Colour Collective
Discuss_
Opening Discussion: Monday 17th, Join Laura Perryman, Curator of Colour Via: and Founder of Colour of Saying, for a panel discussion exploring the future of conscious colour. Featuring designers from the exhibition and hosted at Surface Matter.
Location_
Surface Matter, 29 Westgate Street, London E8 3RL Dates 15 - 22 September 2018 10am - 5pm. Late night opening 17th & 19th 6pm - 9pm
Explore_
For more information about Colour Via and the participating designers, please contact hello@colourofsaying.com
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