Prints by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec and Pierre Charpin for The Wrong Shop
Sebastian Wrong knows a thing or two about experimentation. Despite already holding the mantle of 'Design Director' at Established & Sons, Wrong set up his own retail venture, The Wrong Shop, at the end of 2011. The purpose? To provide an outlet for the even more artistic and creative pursuits of leading designers which don't quite fit into commercial manufacturing's mold. To date, The Wrong Shop has brought such challenging pieces to fruition as a narrow eight-legged table by Konstantin Grcic and a cantilevered steel chair by Jerszy Seymour - both requiring attentive production methods.
This week sees the unveiling of its latest series, an intimate collection of limited-edition prints taken directly from the sketchbooks of French heavyweights Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, and Pierre Charpin. Apart from providing that much-coveted peek into the working processes of these three designers, it is also the first time that these drawings have been available to purchase.
The Bouroullec brothers are no strangers to having their sketches on display. Since their landmark retrospective 'Bivouac' at Centre Pompidou Metz (which will open at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago next month), their flair for drawing has both been well-documented and well-received. Their ten designs (five from each Bouroullec) for this collection range from the naïve to the abstract, and while none directly correlate to one piece of work in particular, there are undeniable links between the endearing sketches and their ultimately refined products.
'For us, drawing is linked with the design process,' Ronan Bouroullec explains. 'It's very much a point of research; a starting point. They are not something that we prepare. It's almost like a free association exercise that lets the mind wander.'
Drawing is also a rare solo venture for the brothers. 'Erwan and I share everything, but drawing is something we each do on our own,' Ronan adds. 'It is something really personal to the both of us which we need to do alone.' They won't, however, reveal who do what, preferring to retain an element of mystery.
In contrast to the Bouroullec's works, Pierre Charpin's Loop series is a tribute to order and consideration. His collaboration with The Wrong Shop actually came about after Wrong visited Charpin's studio and saw similar large format drawings hanging on his studio's walls. Using the loop to explore the notion of repetition and its subtle variations, four of Charpin's original felt-tip drawings were converted with a vectorial program and then screen- or digitally printed to form the series.
'I attach great importance to this practice because it is the link to my visual arts background,' says Charpin. It is also the only time, as a designer, when I assume complete responsibility from the beginning to the end of the process.
Exhibited at twentytwentyone, the highly collectible prints are available in varying editions of 50 and 15, and can be purchased with custom designed frames, or without.
The Wrong Shop Editions prints by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec and Pierre Charpin range from £250 to £695 and are available to buy from twentytwentyone and Thewrongshop.co.uk. They will be exhibited at twentytwentyone's showroom on 18c River Street, London EC1R 1XN, from 19-23 September.
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Pei-Ru Keh is a former US Editor at Wallpaper*. Born and raised in Singapore, she has been a New Yorker since 2013. Pei-Ru held various titles at Wallpaper* between 2007 and 2023. She reports on design, tech, art, architecture, fashion, beauty and lifestyle happenings in the United States, both in print and digitally. Pei-Ru took a key role in championing diversity and representation within Wallpaper's content pillars, actively seeking out stories that reflect a wide range of perspectives. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children, and is currently learning how to drive.
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