’Martino Gamper: Design is a State of Mind’ at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery in London

Colourful sculptures in white room
Installation view at Design is a State of Mind, which opens this week at the Serpentine Sackler gallery, curated by London-based, Italian designer Martino Gamper.
(Image credit: Hugo Glendinning)

The best ideas can be summed up pretty easily. And the idea behind Design is a State of Mind, a new show curated by Martino Gamper at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery is 'interesting things collected by interesting people on interesting shelves'.

'I didn't want to do an historical show,' says Martino, walking me around the exhibition. 'And I didn't want a "what design is now" kind of show. But I did want to use design to display design.'

Simple enough. And given that the Serpentine gave Gamper an open brief and three months to get the show ready, you can see why he resisted unnecessary complication. Except it isn't really simple of course. To work well, and the show works very well indeed, Gamper had to get all the elements, all these stories, working together.

He started with the shelves. Now that Gamper is a central and influential figure in the British design scene, it is easy to forget that he is actually Italian. But an immersion in Italian design, especially in the work of designers like Gio Ponti, who continued to work with craftsmen while their peers embraced industrialisation, is clear in his selection. Many of the shelves are rare one-offs, secured from private lenders with a lot of help from Milan's Nilufar Gallery (given the time restrictions, this made more sense than trying to deal with institutions, Gamper says).

There are shelves from Franco Albini, Ettore Sottsass, Ponti, Andrea Branzi, BBPR, where the R stands for Ernesto Rogers (cousin of Richard), Michele De Lucchi and Vico Magistretti, as well as Charlotte Perriand, Alvar Aalto for Artek, Vitsoe, Ercol, a number of Gamper's own shelves and a bit of Ikea thrown in. 


The collections come from friends, friends of friends, tutors and students who Gamper knew were inveterate hoarders of inspirational objects. Most of them are also designer makers. In the simplest terms, Gamper wants to show how the collections, the materials and the mechanics influence that making.

Some of these collections suggest a collector and a maker immediately; a stash of rocks, some black, some white, smoothed and shaped by time and nature, has been borrowed from Michael Anastassiades, as you might have guessed. So too the pop-bright plastic fantastic of Bethan Laura Wood's haul.

Some collections are tightly focused, personal/professional obsessions; Maki Suzuki's bricks; Jurgen Bay's bestiary; Max Lamb and Gemma Holt's collection of Bernard Leach (and acolytes pottery); the heavy-duty hoes and other gardening equipment collected by the artist Richard Wentworth; and the wooden spoons collected by the photographer Jason Evans (disappointingly Konstantin Gric couldn't locate his box full of prized coat hangers in time for the show).

Some of the displays are more eclectic, such as Ron Arad's knuckle duster to carved cat collection for instance. Perhaps the most remarkable collection though has a space all to itself: Enzo Mari's found object paper weights.

Design is a State of Mind is only the second dedicated design show at the Serpentine, following on from Konstantin Grcic's Design Real, which opened in 2009. And the two shows are an instructive contrast; Grcic's qualified techno-optimism set against Gamper's idea of design as bricolage, a messy assembly of what was and what is, of objects that appeal for reasons we don't entirely understand. Gamper is against taste systems but for taste, in the fullest sense. After all, a shelf, however beautiful, is only half a story, if that. It is the bits and bobs, the magpie hauls, that make sense of it. 

Shelving unit with various silver items on display

The exhibition is an assortment of 'interesting things collected by interesting people on interesting shelves', says Gamper. Pictured is designer Mats Theselius' collection of kitchenware on a bookcase designed by Ignazio Gardella in 1970.

(Image credit: Nilufar Gallery)

Close up of silver items on shelf

The range of each collection varies; some, like Mats Theselius' shining miscellany of scientific-looking utensils, have been kept purposefully focused, suggesting personal or professional obsessions

(Image credit: press)

2 shelving units

Ettore Sottsass's 'Max' shelving (left) and Gamper's own 'L'Arco della Pace' (right), Shelving (co-produced by Museion, Bolzano, Italy and Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli, Turin, Italy) respectively

(Image credit: Memphis and Martino Gamper)

Plates on a wooden shelf

Sebastian Bergne's collection finds a home on Bruno Mathsson's 1943 pine and birch bookcase.

(Image credit: Nilufar Gallery)

Wooden shelving unit displaying rocks

A stash of rocks, some black, some white, smoothed and shaped by time and nature, has been borrowed from Michael Anastassiades, presented on Martino Gamper's 'Booksnake Shelf' from 2002.

(Image credit: David Gill Galleries)

Close up of rocks on shelf

The connection between a designer's objects and their work is obvious in some cases, such as with Anastassiades' pearly pebbles, which bring the orb-like bulbs of his lighting designs instantly to mind.

(Image credit: David Gill Galleries)

Bricks on a shelf

Maki Suzuki's collection of building materials sits upon Andrea Branzi's 'Gritti Bookcase' from 1981.

(Image credit: Nilufar Gallery)

Artifacts laid out on long white tables

Perhaps the most remarkable collection has a space all to itself: Enzo Mari's found object paper weights. Spread out on a spotlit table, the collection assumes the role of museum compendium

(Image credit: press)

Birds foot sculpture

From Enzo Mari's collection: a striking cast of a bird's foot, stamping down sheets of paper.

(Image credit: the artist and Tanya Leighton Gallery)

Coloured glass

Enzo Mari contrasts a mysterious, crystal-like paperweight with a joyous Keith Haring doodle

(Image credit: press)

Wooden shelves displaying jugs

Max Lamb and Gemma Holt's collection of Bernard Leach pottery seems almost archaeological set upon three sets of simply bracketed shelving. Shelving, co-produced by Museion, Bolzano, Italy and Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli, Turin, Italy

(Image credit: Michael Marriott)

Small green items on a shelf

Designer Bethan Laura Wood's collection is characteristically flouro. Shelving

(Image credit: Nilufar Gallery)

Various display units in white room

Many of the shelves are rare one-offs, secured from private lenders with a lot of help from Milan's Nilufar Gallery, including Andrea Branzi's wooden and steel 'Grandi Legni' shelving system, left, from 2009.

(Image credit: McDonagh and Andreas Schmid)

Yellow display unit showing glassware

Andrea Branzi's cantilevered glass 'Wall Bookshelf' from 2011 appears as weightless as the wares it holds.

(Image credit: Nilufar Gallery)

Close up of glassware on yellow shelves

Glassware from the collection of Daniel Eatock

(Image credit: press)

Shelving unit showing music albums

Osvaldo Borsani's integrated modular shelving unit and desk from 1947-1955.

(Image credit: Galleria Rossella Colombari, Milan)

Close up of music albums on shelf

Paul Neale's display sleeves, ranging from Roxy Music to Hawkwind

(Image credit: press)

Box shelving display

Cubes within cubes: Gamper's 'Together Library' showcases a selection of curios set in resin. Co-produced by Museion, Bolzano, Italy and Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli, Turin, Italy

(Image credit: Martino Gamper and Nilufar Gallery)

Animal figurines on shelves

On a 1946 bookcase by Anna Castelli Ferrieri is a collection of trinkets ranging from porcelain deer to a stuffed hair (by way of a furry stool complete with tail). This animal menagerie comes courtesy of Jurgen Bey. Shelving

(Image credit: Nilufar Gallery)

Various items displayed on shelving unit

Ron Arad's objects are displayed on a 1947 Dexion Slotted Angle shelving system (reproduced in 2014), designed by Demetrius Comino. Shelving

(Image credit: Dexion Storage Systems)

ADDRESS

Serpentine Sackler Gallery
Kensington Gardens
London W2 3XA

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