The Natural Room ii at FOG

The Natural Room collection is an approach to living through design that respectfully connects us to the natural world. It aims to create interiors that are of our moment – to focus our thoughts and reflect on our lives - while embodying a long-term vision of how we might live in the future.

It involves ethical and emotional decisions to use slow grown, organic materials and skill-based craft. The international artist-designer-makers included in the collection embrace these ideologies of sustainability and conscious sourcing to create beautifully crafted furniture pieces and sculptural objects in materials such as wood, jute, sisal, willow, and stoneware.

A significant work in The Natural Room II is a new and monumental handwoven, naturally hand-dyed sculptural tapestry from fiber artist Teresa Hastings. Showing for the first time with the gallery, Teresa’s textile practice is rooted in a philosophy which prioritises the honesty of construction and holds itself accountable for the implications of the full journey of making, from source material to wall. Her richly tactile tapestries are made using fibres ranging from wool and washi paper to puddled iron, and are traditionally dyed across many weeks using natural materials including Myrobalan plum, lichen and sweet chestnuts. Teresa splits her practice between London and her studio in the Indian Himalayas. She embraces the varied challenges and constrictions of the climate when making or sourcing materials in India and delights in forging connections and collaborating with local textile communities, felting, dying and making with their support.

We will also show new, innovative explorations of crafted lighting from Julian Watts and Nic Webb. Julian’s tabletop pieces combine and play with his distinctive roster of forms and texture familiar from his sculptural work: delicate constructions of foraged, carved then bronze-cast sticks, seductive, biomorphic blobs and the many planes and ridges of his chisel textured wall pieces. From Nic Webb we will show a new blonde and honey-toned handcarved pendant in storm-felled English Oak, the newest addition to his Kumo Collection.

Following his great reception with us at PAD London we are delighted to be showing five objects from Hong-gu Park’s Nameoji Collection, crafted in Birch and finished with traditional Korean lacquer and oil. We are also presenting scorched seating from John Makepace OBE, Jim Partridge and Liz Walmsley, and a squid ink stained Oak and Bronze console and chair from Marc Fish. Alongside these, the stand will be richly populated by the captivating pyrographs of Etsuko Ichikawa, Inclusion Moon Jars by Adam Buick and tactile turned objects from Ernst Gamperl and Eleanor Lakelin.

Jute and sisal feel like grass between our fingertips, sanded oak like silk, and woven willow crackles under pressure; to stimulate the viewer in ways beyond a purely visual engagement, appealing to an inner need for sensorial invigoration - one that recalls the many pleasures of the natural world. At this moment in time, it feels more pertinent than ever to arrive back at a home which invigorates our senses, calms our minds and connects us to different localities, their makers and communities. Each piece in the collection is imbued with a personality that brings character into our interior spaces. These objects and furniture pieces ask to be treasured as heirlooms in our families over time, instead of falling into the pitfalls and landfills of fast consumerism.

When you live with these objects you connect with their journey - with the desires, skill and creativity of the maker but also with the objects’ lived natural history. The hard thin ridge of growth expresses a particularly harsh winter, the twist of a green-turned vessel shows the wood shucking off its old life to become something new.

Enter the Natural Room and make sense of these stories. Allow them to help you see the world in a new light, be drawn into a world of material and into the love of its crafting.

artists - designer - makers taking part in The Natural Room ii :

Julian Watts, Adam Buick, Marc Fish, Katrien Doms, Luke Fuller, Ernst Gamperl, Marc Ricourt, Teresa Hastings, Park Hong-Gu, Christopher Kurtz, Alida-Kuzemczak-Sayer, Eleanor Lakelin, Fernando Laposse, John Makepeace OBE, Peter Marigold, Tadanori Tozawa, Nic Webb, Arko, Luke Fuller, Jim Partridge and Liz Walmsley.