The Future Perfect presents Fragments, part of Design Curio at Design Miami/, December 2nd – 6th, 2015. The installation will include new and exclusively commissioned work from Dutch designer Lex Pott and New York-based Calico Wallpaper, created in collaboration with The Future Perfect founder David Alhadeff.
Fragments is an immersive display of Lex Pott’s new works in stone framed by a custom handmade gradient wallcovering made from the same stone by Nicholas and Rachel Cope of Calico Wallpaper. The wall design will be hand-applied on-site at Design Miami/, creating a holistic environment and allowing visitors to see the performative process as it develops.
“It is an honor to unveil this project as a Design Curio at Design Miami/,” said David Alhadeff, founder of The Future Perfect. “At The Future Perfect, we have long been dedicated to commissioning new work from emerging designers, and we are proud to continue that mission with Lex Pott and Calico Wallpaper, two rising stars on the global design scene.”
Fragments will feature four new Lex Pott works, three of which are made from Belgian Bluestone. The fourth piece, a shelf, is composed of multiple layers of marble including: Nero Marquina, Verde Rajasthan, Rouge, Giallo Reale, and Bianco Carrara marble, sourced from the same quarry as the rest of the collection. Commissioned by Alhadeff exclusively for The Future Perfect, the designs started with an idea about the way rock at a quarry breaks along the natural lines in the material. The works offer a dialogue between nature’s naturally broken forms and industry’s polished planes of traditionally manufactured stone.
Monumental, rough slabs adjoin smooth surfaces in the Fragments Dining Table and Fragments Side Table, while in Fragments Layered Shelf, five distinct colored marbles are stacked against each other. The collection explores the properties of stone and tells a story about the interplay of texture.
Invited by Alhadeff to create an artistic wallcovering for Fragments, Calico Wallpaper developed a unique process whereby custom pigments derived from pulverized stone – the same stone used in Pott’s work – will be hand-applied to a fine linen substrate created especially for the installation. The end result is a gradient in a similar color to the Lex Pott works, which will progressively fade to the natural linen color as the visitor’s gaze moves toward the ceiling. The pigments are mixed with mica, which adds depth and luster, causing the design to shimmer as guests move throughout the space. Calico Wallpaper painters will wear jumpsuits created from the same Belgian linen, and over the course of the exhibition the jumpsuits will naturally take on the pigment from the painting process, blending the wallcovering and furniture pieces through performance.