A week of watches

Bill Prince, editor-in-chief

The beginning of the week was spent in Milan at the sixth annual gathering known as LVMH Watch Week. This start-of-year event for the group’s nine watch-producing brands acts as both a showcase and a tip sheet for the year ahead, with brands including TAG Heuer, Hublot, Zenith, Tiffany & Co. and, of course, Louis Vuitton itself unveiling new line-ups of timepieces that – in some cases – pointed to firm trends across the industry: smaller case sizes, wider use of precious metals (Tiffany & Co. revealed a stunning platinum-cased chronograph, the Timer, complete with a 'Tiffany Blue' lacquer dial) and, more generally, a greater emphasis on design. This was evident in a refreshed series of Escale models at Louis Vuitton, an extension of the Defy line at Zenith, and the brace of dial names now housed within LV’s watchmaking centre in Geneva, La Fabrique du Temps.

Here, the celebrated duo of Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini are overseeing the development of Gerald Genta and Daniel Roth – the former now represented by the cushion-shaped Geneva Time Only, the latter demonstrating its mastery of shape with the (literally) dazzling Extra Plat Rose Gold Skeleton. Further props went to TAG Heuer for producing its first split-seconds chronograph in a wristwatch, and to Hublot CEO Julien Tornare for creatively corralling last year’s Novak Djokovic Goat Edition Big Bang Unico into a colour-coordinated continuation model designed to keep pace with the world number four’s tournament wins across all three surfaces.

A sonic homecoming

Gabriel Annouka, senior designer

At Café Oto last week, Majazz Project’s Palestinian Sound Archive spun field recordings, Bedouin yarghoul melodies, radio fragments and carefully restored records from Palestine. It was a joyful listening night celebrating sonic heritage through rare, beautifully designed cassette releases (pure nostalgia), rounded off with a playful DJ set by Daniele Mizar.

A playful pilgrimage

Ailis Bickford, project manager

This week, I braved the rain and ventured to West London for Priest’s exhibition, Paper Cut, at the Saatchi Gallery in Sloane Square. The installation playfully unpacks childhood through a series of life-size renderings of key objects that shape art and creativity in one’s formative years. Priest dissects childhood play by magnifying recognisable objects; as you move through the space, it invites you to evaluate prevalent issues in London, from the housing and education crisis to youth violence. Priest: Paper Cut is a free exhibition, open until January 25.

A lunch that lingered

Ellie Stathaki, architecture & environment director

My photos are never as good as the professional ones, but looking back at my visit to Mezzogiorno a week ago makes me want to go again. The new restaurant has just opened on the ground floor of London’s Corinthia Hotel, designed by Afroditi Krassa to provide expertly balanced, welcoming comfort – and that’s before even trying the food. Seen here: the red shrimp starter, a personal favourite; parmigiana di melanzane; and a generous dollop of tiramisu. For the full review, read here.

A literary looking-ahead

Hannah Silver, art, culture, watches & jewellery editor

For a culture editor, January offers an exciting chance to preview key launches for the year ahead. This month, I have particularly enjoyed reading Granta’s upcoming April release, The Wonderful World That Almost Was: A Life of Peter Hujar and Paul Thek. Tracing their creative, tumultuous partnership, it offers a rare peek into the lives of two criminally overlooked artists.

An Electric night

Charlotte Gunn, director of digital content

I finally caught Marty Supreme at my favourite London cinema, the Electric on Portobello Road, and it was a riot. Chaotic, original and not really about ping pong at all, the film shares the same farcical, kinetic energy as one of the best flms of last year, One Battle After Another. Ahead of the screening, I stopped by Jackson Boxer’s Dove and found it far more compelling than its predecessor, Orosay. The tuna ragù, in particular, was a standout.

A snowy sojourn

Anna Fixsen, US editor

An assignment for Wallpaper* (no spoilers here!) took me to rural Sullivan County, New York, over the weekend. Unlike other Upstate enclaves, this particular region felt delightfully wild, thanks to its rural setting in a crook of the Delaware River and a refreshing lack of trendy shops and boutique hotels. I took advantage of the slower pace by playing cards with my husband, listening to an audiobook (Belle Burden’s engrossing memoir is a must!) and keeping an eye out for wild critters with my binoculars. It snowed six inches, blanketing the landscape in a fluffy white duvet – perfect when you’re snug-as-a-bug indoors, challenging when you find out your sporty rental car does not, in fact, have all-wheel drive. Fortunately, this hearty Minnesotan knows her way around a snowbank.

A young man cradling a newborn baby, a girl with wildflowers threaded through her hair, teenage siblings wrapped in an embrace: these are not typical images from a country at war, but then neither is FUTURESPECTIVE, a typical exhibit. Opening at the Saatchi Gallery this week, FUTURESPECTIVE showcases the work of 34 young and emerging Ukrainian photographers who were discovered via an open call and selected by a jury that included photographer Carlijn Jacobs and Brett Lloyd, among others.

The aim of the exhibit is to introduce the country’s next generation of photographers on the international stage and, in the process, it presents a portrait of a country at war as seen by youth. The result is a diverse collection of work that spans documentary and art photography, still life, landscape, and collage, some of which were taken before the war began in 2022, and others after. No matter the context in which they were taken, the present circumstances give every image greater resonance. Gathered together on four of the gallery’s white walls, the pictures compel viewers to see how the questions that preoccupy all people, especially young people – what matters to me now? What might come in the future? – become even more significant when they are put at risk.

For many of the young photographers in the show, the opportunity to display their work forced them to confront these questions anew. ‘In the first months of the invasion, I felt a very strong apathy: creating art was no longer needed when it came to survival,’ says Vic Bakin.

‘I asked myself the same question again and again: what’s it for? Why create? And I couldn’t find any answer. I am talking about art, of course. I am not talking about photojournalism, reportage, and documentary photography, which became extremely important in the first months and continue to be important. We should not underestimate the work of Ukrainian (and foreign) photojournalists, who first showed the world Bucha and Mariupol and continue to show the world what happens here. Ukraine, like any other country at war, relies on this powerful medium.’

‘One could say [artistic photography] is not immediate and it’s not crucial enough,’ Bakin continues. ‘And I would agree; it’s a different kind of approach. But still, if you can touch the heart of the audience, it is a legitimate way to do your work. For me, it works: you talk about the same thing, but with different words or in a different language. But still, you tell the story. No matter what, the function is still the same.’

Photographer Mykola Maychyk echoes a similar sentiment, noting that the war has changed the personal and public significance of his work.

‘Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, my vision and approach to creativity have been turned upside down,’ Maychyk says. ‘My photography has gained a new sense of sensitivity and compassion. It has become a powerful tool for sharing Ukrainian culture (in my case) and for informing the world about the war in Ukraine – a role also seen in the work of Ukrainian military photographers and documentarians.’

Indeed, FUTURESPECTIVE demonstrates just how powerful a tool photography can be, offering viewers intimate insight into a country at war, and the toll such an experience takes on the ones who are forced to go through it. For artists like Maychyk, that is what makes this exhibition so important.

‘Sadly, it took such turbulent times for many of us to realise how vital it is to present Ukrainian art to the world,’ he says. ‘This act serves two inseparable purposes – to inform the world about the war, and to highlight Ukrainian artists whose work is nationally and internationally competitive.’

‘I hope visitors leave with sincere, positive and at times, compassionate feelings. The variety of styles and approaches is truly remarkable, and these works are the kind you want to look at closely, to really feel. I believe that’s exactly what will happen.’

‘FUTURESPECTIVE, at Saatchi Gallery until 16 November 2025, https://www.saatchigallery.com/

Flowers and fashion are entangled together in a new exhibition at Saatchi Gallery in London. ‘Flowers – Flora in Contemporary Art & Culture’ explores how flora inspires creatives in various fields, and displays works by the likes of fashion house Vivienne Westwood and Finnish lifestyle design house Marimekko.

‘Flowers- Flora in Contemporary Art & Culture’

The exhibition, at the gallery's Kings Road, Chelsea base, seeks to reveal myriad ways that flowers are interpreted by artists within contemporary culture. It takes over two floors and nine gallery spaces, with large-scale installations, photography, archival objects, fashion, and graphic design.

Archival pieces vary from high-street to haute-couture designs. There's symbolism intricate texture, romanticism and natural beauty. British designer Vivienne Westwood shared her love for and knowledge of flowers in her designs. With her iconic punk aesthetic, floral prints were used to explore femininity and revelation throughout her collections, blending the avant-garde and delicacy.

Jewellery house Buccellati, which supports the exhibition, presents six hyperrealist floral brooches. These rare pieces include the 1929 Orchid and 1960s Daisy brooches, both crafted by founder Mario Buccellati, and Gianmaria Buccellati’s 1991 Begonia brooch with matching earrings. All are a tribute to the maison’s ‘stylistic identity’.

Schiaparelli, meanwhile, presents a 2024 haute couture wedding dress designed by Daniel Roseberry. The dress is garnished in three-dimensional hand-painted leather hydrangeas, parrot tulips, orchids and daisies, on a canvas of white silk taffeta.

Floral abstractions have been a Marimekko signature since textile designer Maija Isola’s prints from the 1960s, despite the brand’s founder Armi Ratia’s belief that ‘the beauty of flowers could not be captured in an artwork’. Now, Marimekko prints are an inspiration for a new generation of designers, including recent works by Helsinki-based graphic designer Antti Kekki, whose modern floral depictions ‘capture Marimekko's joyful and artistic essence through a fresh lens’.

The exhibition also features works by tattoo artist Daniel the Gardener, which are inspired by the relationship each client has with plants. The exhibition is a tribute to the beauty of flowers and how creatives bring them into everyday life.

‘Flowers – Flora in Contemporary Art & Culture’ is on display at Saatchi Gallery until until 5 May 2025 saatchigallery.com

When it comes to the work of London-based creative duo Isabel + Helen, it’s just as much about how it’s produced, as what is produced. 

Isabel Gibson and Helen Chesner (profiled in Wallpaper’s September 2019 issue) first met while studying graphic design at London’s Chelsea College of Arts, collaborating over a shared zest for analogue design processes, industrial materials and simple kinetics. Their work often makes use of basic mechanics, modified to defy gravity and expectations. 

Since 2012, they have gained widespread recognition for their experimental installations and animated sculptures, collaborating with fashion brands and cultural institutions including Hermès, Selfridges, Bottega Veneta, Moncler, Craig Green, the V&A, and Tate Modern.

At Saatchi Gallery, their London show ‘In Orbit’ comprises a new series of hypnotic, large-scale paintings created by hand-assembled contraptions. The project began during a few quiet lockdown weeks in their south London studio, an old laundry room of a former Victorian house for ‘destitute and disorderly’ girls. 

They began experimenting, attaching long brushes to a drill and painting onto cardboard. ‘Noticing how the rotations created such accurate and rhythmic circular prints inspired us to take it further’, say Isabel + Helen. ‘It was the contrast of such an analogue and thrown-together method, which then created something so accurate, intricate and almost digitally made, that excited us.’ The process had the flavour of child’s play, but the outcome suggests something altogether more scientifically sophisticated. 'It was surprising just how much depth was created in the paintings, the thousands of lines and shades that came from the brushes, from using a single coloured paint. They are so intricate up close, almost mathematical.’

Setting up the contraption could take hours; the execution a matter of minutes. ‘The satisfaction came from spending hours setting up the process. Once the switch is turned, we could then step back and wait for the painting to reveal itself to us. It was almost therapeutic and reassuring, a moment where we could relinquish all responsibility and where the paintings would create themselves.’ Once the machines are activated, the artists – like the viewers – become spectators of the performance. 

In the Saatchi Gallery show, the process is laid bare for all to see, the contraption itself forms a central part of the show, and an aerial-view film documents the process – a mesmerising performance in its own right. ‘We loved that wherever we placed a brush on the contraption, it would start its orbit around the canvas until it ended back up where it started, completing its own circular journey’. 

The work celebrates the duo’s nostalgic approach to inventing: a process of tinkering with materials, embracing small imperfections and unexpected twists, and where human touch is evident, but the machine has a mind of its own. ‘It was hard to stop, it became punishingly addictive, with infinite variations there was always temptation that the next one would be the better.’ Isabel + Helen are two down-to-earth creators brimming with unearthly ideas. ‘In Orbit’ feels part art, part magic.

INFORMATION
Isabel + Helen, ’In Orbit’ at Saatchi Gallery, London, until 5 September 2021. saatchigallery.com

isabelandhelen.com

At London Design Festival this year, Italian design heavyweights have set their crosshairs on Chelsea. From the 19-22 September, the best, brightest and biggest producers of the Bel Paese will receive the white cube treatment care of the Saatchi Gallery. Curated by Giulio Cappellini (of the eponymous brand), I-MADE, the Italian Manufacture Art & Design Exhibition, will feature 50 of Italy’s finest furniture makers.

‘The idea was to differentiate I-MADE from other trade shows by presenting the products as works of art, highlighting great craftsmanship,’ explains Cappellini of the concept behind the fair and the choice of Saatchi Gallery as a location, ‘the prestigious gallery provided the perfect setting for such a presentation.’

Casting a wide net across the industry, Cappellini seems to have covered all his bases: ‘The selection of pieces on display, which exhibitors were given the freedom to choose, includes a mix of industrial or highly-artisanal, small and large products,’ he says of the curation, which includes top-notch manufacturers such as Poltrona Frau, Living Divani, Molteni & C, Cassina, Poliform and Flexform.

Lighting will be well-represented by the likes of Driade and Martinelli Luce and there will even be representatives as far across the board as Fiorano-based ceramics manufacturer Florim and exercise equipment trailblazers Technogym. ‘Visitors can expect to see products characterised by quality materials and innovation as well as objects from both past and present,’ he adds.

Indeed, I-MADE’s satellite project, ‘Take a Seat’, will showcase a prime slice of history. ‘I have selected iconic chairs which are recognisable to everyone,’ explains Capellini of the show. ‘There are works by Gio Ponti, Aldo Rossi, Marco Zanuso and Alessandro Mendini. These are complemented by more recent pieces by Antonio Citterio, Philippe Starck, Piero Lissoni, Patricia Urquiola, Jean Marie Massaud, Jaime Hayon, Jasper Morrison and Doshi Levien. It’s a testament to the diversity of materials mastered by the Italian industry with seats made of wood, metal, fabric, leather and plastic.’

Over the weekend, a series of talks will host some of the leading figures in Italian design. Cassina art director and design Patricia Urquiola, Moroso creative director Patrizia Moroso, Molteni’s Giulia Molteni and and Boffi|De Padova CEO Roberto Gavazzi will convene to discuss the proverbial nuts and bolts of their shared industry.

‘When the organisers of I-MADE asked me to curate this fair, it was already clear to me that their intent was to present a selection of the best that Italy has to offer in terms of design and manufacturing,’ Cappellini continues. ‘The London Design Festival seemed like the perfect platform. I embraced the idea of an event that I believe has the potential to grow into an important annual appointment for connoisseurs and the general public and give them a platform where they can gather to admire the top brands from every corner of Italy. It’s an absolute novelty in this context.’

INFORMATION
I-MADE is on view from 19-22 September. londondesignfestival.com

ADDRESS

Duke of York's HQ
King's Rd
London
SW3 4RY

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Featuring artworks with a price range of £500 to £50,000, and a geographic range from Buenos Aires to Peckham, the third edition of Start art fair at London's Saatchi Gallery is as diverse as they come.

Expect a balanced selection of group and solo presentations taking over the prominent Kings Road space. Highlights include an impressive first London solo showing of Iraqi-born artist Mahmoud Obaidi's work, which features as part of Saatchi's Start Projects programme. Rooted in the recent history of Iraq, Obaidi’s work uses domestic appliances to make darkly humorous objects exploring the absurdity of war.

Another Start Project, 'Future Island', focuses on a new generation of Taiwanese artists such as Su Yu Xin and Ting Tong Chang, many of whom are internationally renowned for investigating the unique position of Taiwanese culture in a contemporary context.

It is this cross-cultural, young-gun focus that Start hopes will distinguish it from the myriad art fairs in Europe. As hinted by its name, Start dedicates generous wallspace to emerging talent, from all corners of the globe, many of whom are new to the London art world's discerning glare – and its deep pockets.

'I’m really excited by the range of this year’s Start Projects, which go from in-depth presentations of one artist’s practice through to a vibrant group show of Taiwanese art and an artist-curated project,' Niru Ratnam, the fair's director, explains. 'I was also delighted to bring Sumakshi Singh’s project to London, having initially seen it in India earlier this year. Each project strongly links back to our aim of introducing artists and art scenes that are new to London’s audiences.'

INFORMATION

Start art fair runs from 15–18 September in London. For more information, visit the Start website

ADDRESS

Saatchi Gallery
Duke Of York's HQ
King's Road
London, SW3 4RY

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Founded in 1953 in Bergamo, Italy, Rossana has collaborated with a host of Italian designers including Rodolfo Dordoni, Michele De Lucchi and Christophe Pillet on its striking kitchen concepts. So team Wallpaper* were more than happy to oblige when the luxury kitchen brand called on us to help launch its interchangeable ‘K-In K-Out’ unit at a special event hosted at the Saatchi Gallery in London.

We commissioned creative studio Bonsoir Paris to realise an installation that celebrates the kitchen’s unique indoor/outdoor aesthetic. The firm, helmed by creative directors Rémy Clémente and Morgan Maccari, responded with a series of helical wooden mobiles that formed a delicate counterpoint to Rossana’s monolithic kitchen.

Designed by Massimo Castagna, ‘K-In K-Out’ comprises a freestanding island unit that appears to float, thanks to the high, burnished-steel supporting plinth. This striking illusion is only further enhanced when the island’s cover tops are slid open, playing with form and proportion, while appliances and work surfaces are revealed beneath.

Installation view of the ‘K-In K-Out’ at Saatchi Gallery

Identical on the outside, the kitchen’s smart design trickery lies beneath the surface: the indoor version comprises a steel framework with internal workings made from wood and patinated metals, while the framework of the outdoor iteration is made entirely from steel. The kitchen comes in a range of finishes, including a natural grey stone, heat-treated elm, chestnut, eucalyptus and dark olive veneer.

The launch event didn't end there, of course. Guests were able to experience the kitchen in a virtual reality installation that digitally transported ‘K-In K-Out’ to developer Manhattan Loft Corporation’s upcoming sky tower, Manhattan Loft Gardens.

Elsewhere, Saatchi Gallery hosted an exhibition of works by artist Philipp Rudolf Humm, including an oil painting depicting ‘K-In K-Out’ as an altar. The painting was displayed along other works from Humm's Urban Portraits series, recently shown at both Riflemaker and CNB Gallery in London.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Rossana website

Bjarne Melgaard is a controversial artist, befitting of the controversial all-male showcase currently on show at London's Saatchi Gallery. To some, his vibrant assemblages are frustrating. To others, they're bold works of genius, exploring difficult themes like addiction with clarity and depth. Hidden layers are revealed the more you look into the Norwegian artist's animated signatures, savage brush strokes and Picasso-esque features. No matter your opinion, Melgaard's work is undoubtedly 'art'.

Not according to certain Norwegian customs officials, though. On a recent romp through the border in Oslo's Gardermoen Airport, control staff confiscated a number of his artworks on the grounds that they were not art, and therefore not subject to the same tax exemptions. After convincing them otherwise (some three months later, and only after the intervention of Norway's finance minister Siv Jensen) Melgaard won the right to categorise his works as art. Now, he downplays the whole ridiculous situation. 'It was annoying,' he states. 'But in the end I won my case and I changed Norwegian law. So it was a good thing that it happened.'

The dispute centred on the categorisation of the works as paintings. According to Norway's outdated regulations, 'paintings must be executed entirely by hand', whereas Melgaard uses various innovative printing techniques in his work. With this in mind, it seems apt that his work is now included in Saatchi's 'Painters' Painters' exhibition – a group show presenting a selection of nine influential, present-day painters, who are helping to shape the medium's future.

The group show aims to highlight what the gallery implies is a lagging medium, suffering from some curators' fetishes for digital works. But for Melgaard, painting is still very much alive. 'I don’t think that curators are not favouring painting because there are so many painters around doing work,' he says. In Melgaard's opinion, it seems, as long as work is being produced, the galleries will take it, and the punters will be there to drink it in. The invariably boundary-busting work on display throughout the exhibition ratifies his point.

Other exhibition highlights come courtesy of Dexter Dalwood and Martin Maloney, along with Richard Aldrich, whose paintings Melgaard particularly admires. 'I like that Aldrich's work is so difficult to understand and that it’s not at all comprehensible. It’s also totally non-linear. It’s interesting to me what he does, because it’s so very far away from what I’m doing myself.'

Indeed, Aldrich's vast white works seem to stand in complete visual contrast to Melgaard's vivid portraits, the subjects of which Meglaard keeps close to his chest. All he reveals is that they're a mix 'of fictional and real people.' Indeed, mystery pervades each works' myriad layers, belying their initial childlike impression. Viewers are left with more questions than answers. And if this isn't the purpose of art – to provoke discussion, questioning and mystery – we're not sure what is.

INFORMATION

’Painters’ Painters’ is on view until 28 February. For more information, visit the Saatchi Gallery website

ADDRESS

Saatchi Gallery
Duke Of York's HQ
King's Road
London SW3 4RY

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The rock-n-roll retrospective is big business these days.

Whether that's a good thing depends on how one values the validity of shifting pop stars and music into art world and gallery contexts. London's Victoria and Albert Museum hit critical pay dirt with their expansive and impeccably realised David Bowie exhibition (largely a result of the great man's chameleonic, discipline-straddling practice and unerringly singular vision). But for every Bowie there's a Björk, whose 2015 retrospective at MoMA was a mess – a brilliant artist sold short by the cloying reverence of her curators.

Safe to say, increasingly-creaky rock'n'roll titans The Rolling Stones will be looking to channel the success of the former in 'Exhibtionism', a sprawling retrospective at London's Saatchi Gallery – the largest survey of its kind ever staged by an artist or band.

Size isn't everything, of course, and for Wallpaper* there's greater shakes here in the fact that the show has been put together by the influential design firm Pentagram: specifically company founders William Russell (in London) and Abbott Miller (New York).

'Working closely with the band and curator Ileen Gallagher, we approached the space as if it were a set list for a concert, viewing it as a performance rather than an exhibition,' explains Russell of the show's conception. 'There is a range of tempos, sensations and emotions that build into one orchestrated experience: it is tactile, authentic, glamorous, messy, and suffused with the sounds and images of the band.'

The offering – delineated into 'chapters' – is broad, to say the least. In ephemera alone, the show features 500 items spanning instruments, costumes, personal documents, unseen video material, original album artwork and more. Themed spaces include 'Ladies & Gentlemen', an introductory audio visual projection installation exploring the breadth of the band's cultural impact; a recreation of the band's first squalid apartment, Edith Grove in Chelsea; and self-explanatory 'Recording' and 'Film' galleries.

Further rooms delve into the band's deployment of art, design and sartorial influence, a collection of never-before-seen items drawn from the Stones' archive seguing into a gallery space holding works by Warhol, Richard Hamilton and Ralph Steadman; while the she show's defacto finale is the 'Performance' space, providing a Stones POV film of the band in concert, as well as a 3D video of the group in action, capturing the raw magnetism that dragged them from diligent London blues hounds to global cultural behemoths. 

Preceding the show's opening, Wallpaper* caught up with Abbott Miller to dicuss Pentagram's involvement in the project, breaking the increasingly workaday retrospective mould and harnessing the energy of the super fan.

W*: How did Pentagram become involved in the project? Is this the first project of its kind yourselves or the firm have been involved with?
We were invited based on previous experiential/exhibition design projects, some of which dealt specifically with popular music (a show on John Lennon which was a close collaboration with Yoko Ono, a show on the history of rock and roll style, a show on the relationship between art and television, and the design of the permanent installations of the Harley-Davidson Museum). While we’ve done many retail environments and exhibitions, this one is unique because of the extensive integration of sound, media, and lighting, which gives it a heightened theatrical quotient.

In conceiving the show, what level of symbiosis was at play between Pentagram, the band and Ileen Gallagher? Was the process of pulling the show together truly collaborative?
It was immensely collaborative, involving a really enjoyable dialogue between the producers, the curator, the band, and ourselves. There were key moments of review with the band where they were able to give a gut reaction to the design, to the selection of objects, and to the use of songs and media.

This was probably the best aspect of the project: we knew the band wanted to be involved, and the producers and curator had created a clear thematic approach prior to our involvement, but it was the way these layers built into a more and more immersive environment that made this a really satisfying process. Mick Jagger in particular has a keen sense of the experience as constructing a portrait of the band, so he was naturally very engaged, at times critical, at times very affirming. This feedback among all members of the creative team is what gives the show its unique rhythm of raw and polished moments, between things that are very tactile and authentic, and those that are more glossy and refined.

The band’s longstanding lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe was also a key player in providing feedback, as well as enabling the integration of lighting that lends the show a theatrical drama.

These kind of multifaceted museum/gallery-based music retrospectives are becoming more common (see Bowie and Bjork as good and bad examples). In terms of design, how is this show pushing the envelope? What does it do that others haven’t?
I think the exhibition is distinctive for providing both visceral/tactile moments that pull from theatrical experience as well as more artifact-based moments. The thematic structure allows us to combine these two aspects of what an exhibition can deliver, and the fact that we’ve designed the spaces to be distinct (in terns of the approach, the design language, and the emphasis on objects vs experiences) makes this unique. The 'chapter' construction liberated us and I think means the experience is dynamic for the audience.

Where do you think it best succeeds?
I think it succeeds in being completely in sync with the curatorial and editorial goals: the design really supports the storytelling.

What are your personal highlights?
I think the 'Recording' gallery is very interesting in resolving the need to show meaningful artifacts but to put them in a context that imbues them with meaning. This space manages to talk about three distinct studio environments that were crucial to the band’s creative development while also providing interactive elements that are genuinely engaging. On top of that we also incorporate a kind of 'super-fan' moment around the guitars. But the 'Style' gallery is a satisfying visual blast as well.

INFORMATION

'Exhibitionism' is on view until 4 September. For more information, visit the Saatchi Gallery's website

ADDRESS

Saatchi Gallery
Duke Of York's HQ
King's Road
London, SW3 4RY

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Harry and David Rich know their Dianthus gallicus from their Primula japonica and could talk all day about flowers and plants from around the world, but start a conversation about luxury fashion brands and they will tell you that they only know one, ‘the French one: Chanel’. 

The brothers, originally from Brecon in Wales, were commissioned by the fashion house to create a garden at its ‘Mademoiselle Privé’ exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in London at the end of last year. 

No previous exhibition at the Saatchi had made use of the 1,500 sq m approach to the Duke of York’s HQ on King’s Road, where the gallery has its base. The Rich brothers (professionally known as Rich Landscapes) would have quite liked their haute horticulture to become permanent, not least because the build was a logistical nightmare – deliveries and collections were only allowed within a one-hour window each day.

However, they are used to temporary triumphs. Last year, they took a gold medal at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show – a sort of Cannes Film Festival for the green-fingered, which takes place just down the road from the Saatchi every spring – for a garden featuring a moveable shack on rails. ‘You work so hard to make a space for people to enjoy and then if it is an exhibition or show garden it has to be dismantled,’ says David.

The three ‘garden rooms’ they created for the ‘Mademoiselle Privé’ exhibition represented key influences in Coco Chanel’s life, including her lover and muse Boy Capel. ‘It is a subtle interpretation,’ says Harry. ‘If you look at the finer details within the garden, you can see the points we were drawing on.’ The hard landscaping comprised steel, charred oak and bound gravel, and the brothers cleverly wove together a chevron pattern from a Chanel handbag design with the brand’s interlocking Cs. Some 200 trees and shrubs were installed and a natural meadow knitted together the rest of the planting.

The Rich brothers would like you to believe they are simply geeky garden folk, but they have become the most fashionable thing in horticulture. The connection with Chanel has simply underscored it.

They are blessed with rugged good looks, which helps and may well be the reason they’ve recently had a TV production company knocking on their door; they like to use naturalistic planting styles, which happen to be de rigueur at the moment – for the ‘Mademoiselle Privé’ garden they mixed up the looseness of grasses with formal hedging; and every other aspect of their lives feels like it could be the work of a stylist.

They cycle to their east London studio on fixies, with Harry’s black Labrador, Darcy, bounding alongside. David plays guitar in a folk band in his spare time, Harry plays jazz trumpet. ‘He’d rather stay at home practising than come to meetings with me,’ says David. ‘You can always tell when he’s been practising and he does turn up, because he has geisha lips.'

Harry and David, 28 and 25 respectively, grew up in a nature-loving household. Their father was a forester before founding the peat-free compost business Vital Earth. Both boys were creative and their father helped steer them towards a career in landscape architecture. ‘I graduated and started the business [in 2011], which until last year was based in Wales,’ says Harry. ‘David went off to study the same degree I did [landscape architecture at what was then Leeds Metropolitan University], but spent a lot of his time helping me out.’

Last year’s Chelsea Flower Show gold medal was the pair’s second (they’ve also had a silver-gilt), and they are the show’s youngest exhibitors to have won a gold on its Main Avenue. They will have to give Chelsea a miss this year, because they are too busy. ‘We are very lucky to have a wide range of work,’ says David. ‘We have two new big private residential projects at design stage – an organic farm in Devon and the garden of a contemporary concrete home right on the seafront in Wales.’ Meanwhile, developers have brought them on board to work on the outdoor elements of projects such as London’s 31-storey Canaletto tower. They have also been approached about the landscaping of a 500-acre site in Yangshuo, China, with a view to creating British-inspired gardens. ‘It is still at the early concept stage,’ says David. ‘The development will have boutique hotels and private residences, but 70 per cent of the space is gardens.’ They are thinking walled gardens and oak trees and have plans for a horticultural education centre on site ‘to teach people about the culture of British gardening’. It’s a culture they are already imparting. And with some force. 

As originally featured in the March 2016 issue of Wallpaper* (W*204)

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Rich Landscapes website

Photography: Philip Sinden

To celebrate its 30th anniversary, London’s Saatchi Gallery is staging its first all-women exhibition. It’s a show that asks questions before you get though the door: whether this is an idea that has passed its sell by date; if it has, by how many decades; and even if it hasn’t, was it a good idea to call the show 'Champagne Life'? (The title is actually taken from a 2014 piece by one of the participating artists, the American Julia Wachtel, which intersperses an upside down and repeated image of Kim and Kayne with a right-ways-up, blue plastic, finger-wagging Minnie Mouse.)

Put those questions aside, valid as they are, and through the doors you will find the work of 14 emerging artists; one of whom, Wachtel, is actually now 59. The problem is that if you reject the femaleness of the artists as a useful thematic tool the you are left with a random bunch of objects in space.

Not that some of them aren’t striking, from Alice Anderson’s enormous cotton reel (Bound), and ball (181 Kilometers); to Stephanie Quayle’s Two Cows – two life-sized brown cows, made from clay and chicken wire; and Sohelia Sokhanvari’s Moje Sabz, a taxidermied horse straddling a giant, deflating balloon.

The show gets more interesting if you cross reference gender and geography. Anderson is British, as is Quayle – though from the Isle of Man, which is its own kind of specific – while Sokhanvari is Iranian. The Saudi Arabian artist Maha Mullah, meanwhile, is represented by Food for Thought – Al-Muallaqat, a piece composed of aluminium cooking pots that takes up an entire gallery wall.

One thing that does strike you is – in the context of much contemporary art – is how well-made many of these pieces are, how finished. There are no messy piles, nothing much in the way of found objects or ‘readymades’. These are mostly made things rather than found things. Which is interesting – but not because all the artists are women and it has nothing to do with champagne.

INFORMATION

’Champagne Life’ is on view until 6 March. For more information, visit the Saatchi Gallery’s website

Images courtesy the Saatchi Gallery

ADDRESS

Saatchi Gallery
Duke Of York's HQ
King's Road
London, SW3 4RY

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There was a brief spell at the turn of the century when rediscovered retro imagery provided a startling reminder of the sins of the past. A treasure trove of advertising archives surfaced online, bringing a thrilling schadenfreude that allowed us to balk piously at the blatant ignorance, sexism, bigotry and pure wrong-headedness of old school advertising.

In recent years, we’ve had Mad Men weaving a compelling narrative out of this particular mire, and it’s safe to say that the intersection of old-fashioned ignorance and what was then ultra-modern media still holds a morbid fascination. Charles Saatchi’s latest compendium pulls together the best of the worst, complete with typically pithy dismissals.

What's saddest of all – as a glimpse at the trending social media of the day regularly reveals – is that such attitudes are not as safely confined to history as we might like, meaning that Beyond Belief fails to make you feel better about yourself.

The second chapter explores laughably bold cigarette adverts; for example, Pall Mall's claim that their longer 'smooth' cigarette were healthier are they filtered out the harsh chemicals.

Children were often used by Marlboro to promote smoking as a family activity.

INFORMATION

Beyond Belief, by Charles Saatchi, £25, published by Booth-Clibborn Editions. For more information, visit the publisher’s website

At yesterday's opening of 'Wanderland', the Hermès exhibition at Saatchi Gallery that travels to Paris and Turin later this year, creative director Pierre-Alexis Dumas recalled the words of the great French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau: 'I like to be busy doing nothing, … to come and go as the whim takes me, to change my plan at every moment, … to while away the day without purpose.'

Walking through the streets of most major cities, it seems that the art of aimlessly wandering is long lost. 'It's nice to just sit at a café or on a bench,' muses Dumas. 'To watch people and not do anything and watch time go by. I think it has become a luxury today, when everybody's so busy.' Dumas refers to a human habit that emerged in post-Industrial Revolution Paris in the nineteenth century, the activity of near non-activity: 'flâner'. An almost untranslatable French word, it means to wander, to stroll.

The birth of the house of Hermès in 1837 coincided with that era, prompting Dumas to choose 'flânerie' as this year's annual theme, which celebrates a poetic part of the luxury leather goods house's history.

Wanderland, with its title reminiscent of that other almost untranslatable German term, 'wanderlust', is a feat of trompe l'oeil spread over 11 rooms. Conceived by curator Bruno Gaudichon and set designer Hubert Le Gall, the exhibition, featured in our May issue (W* 194), combines pieces from the Hermès archives with odd items from Emile Hermès' personal collection, most of which relate to horses or walking.

Walking stick - the essential accessory of the flâneur - appears in the form of various wonderfully crafted canes that possess hidden features.  The hunting ground of the flâneur - streets, squares, the typically Parisian covered shopping arcades and sidewalk cafés - are realistically rendered with the addition of some surreal touches - upside-down lampposts or a miniature video playing in a coffee cup, for example. Dotted about are curiosities, like a 1920s golf watch designed to be worn around the waist and the 'Spoutnik' pendant designed by Pierre Hardy for Hermès in 2009. Contemporary artists have been invited to contribute too. Visual artist Magali Desbazeille, together with her partner, the musician Siegfried Canto, have developed an audiovisual installation while British graffiti artist CEPT has created a mural on site, a local street art touch that will change according to each location.

Paying homage to places and objects that speak to our subconscious and have a soul, Wanderland summons up feelings of curiosity and wonder at the hands of precious finds, Hermès or otherwise. Gaudichon's goal was to get 'people to smile inside when they come out of here. To understand that luxury is about the pleasure of something that is not useful. I like that art de vivre: the mixture of something natural with something sophisticated.'

To read more about the lost art of wandering and the creation of 'Wanderland', turn to pg. 83 of the May 2015 issue of Wallpaper* - out now

ADDRESS

Duke Of York's HQ
King's Road
London. SW3 4RY

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An artist from China or Russia in the years following Glasnost and economic reform wouldn't have had much in common with his counterpart in the UK or US. Certainly the ideological links between those nations would have been tenuous at best. What they did share was a keen awareness of the imagery that besieged them - from bookshops, billboards and buildings of church and state - and the pop artists who exploited it.

In the East, people whose lives were strongly dictated were suddenly expected to think for themselves. Meanwhile in the West, people long expected to think for themselves were being told what to do and think. The disillusionment felt by artists coming of age at that time spawned a legacy of highly charged late-pop art.

That work is the subject of a far-reaching exhibition opened this week at London's Saatchi Gallery. Assembled by curators representing Russia, China and Taiwan, as well as the UK and US, 'Post Pop: East Meets West' features 250 works from three decades following the heyday of pop art.

It opens with a false sense of serenity in the monochrome 'Habitat' section, dominated by Ai Weiwei's 'Sofa in White', a replica of the standard-issue Chinese tufted armchair cast in marble, denying the comfort it's meant to offer. Bill Woodrow's 'Hoover Breakdown' references the mood of the modern housewife with a scattering of vacuum parts headed for the fan of a larger model. Richard Woods' recent 'Nature Making' portrays the act of destroying trees in the name of 'natural' furniture. Mounted on a whitewashed brick wall is Rachel Whiteread's 'Untitled (Black Books)', painted over in matt black so that nothing can be learned from it - least of all about the owner.

Soon enough, however, the bleeps of a Mao Zedong-themed video game crescendo and the branding appears: Jeff Koons' Spalding basketballs; Tom Sachs' 'Nutsy's McDonald's', assembled with visible nuts and bolts, including instructions on how to cook a 'prefab' meal. Alexander Kosolapov, luminary of Russia's sots art, or Soviet pop art, movement, presents a trinity of faceless Madonnas upstaged by a grid of caviar labels.

You'd think a generation of artists raised in the relative absence of religion would have escaped the pull of iconography. But therein lies the conflict in 'Ideology & Religion', perhaps the show's strongest section. If you're not scared straight by 'Die Harder', a screaming steel crucifix spiked with coat hangers by Turner Prize-nominee David Mach, you will be by the 12 shrouded figures worshipping at the altar of carved-wood toast slices by Anatoly Osmolovsky.

Further up the building the art goes increasingly meta, reproducing genres as disparate as classical Greek sculpture, English romantic, even pop art. After the umpteenth Warhol nod, the homage begins to wear thin - as does the line between the gallery proper and the second-floor gift shop. Perhaps this is the desired effect. At this time of year, does it matter?

ADDRESS

Saatchi Gallery
Duke of York's HQ
King's Road
London SW3 4RY

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SalonQP, the annual fine-watch fair held at the Saatchi Gallery, brought the world's top watch brands, makers and collectors to London last week. But along with the first-rate crowd, one of the year's biggest draws was the distinctly stylish 'Gems of Time' exhibition, exploring the design and innovation of the jewelled watch.
 
Even nicer, it was curated by our watches and jewellery director Caragh McKay and designed by Wallpaper* editor-at-large Leila Latchin. McKay invited Latchin to design the set as she knew 'Leila would create a space that understands the classic nature of the great jewellery houses while imbuing them with a suitably modern glamour that is all too often missing from fine jewellery and watch exhibitions, which tend to be staged in traditional art institutions.'
 
The soft, pastel palette was dictated by the golden-peach 'Semiramis' fabric from Sahco, which lined the display cases and was also used to create couture-like billowed curtains. Latchin wanted to design 'an intimate space that draws you in, with elegant windows and curtained alcoves emerging as you move through, each revealing their own treasures hidden within'. Indeed, looking into each vitrine was like peeking into a personal jewellery box befitting Latchin's vision of creating 'poetic still-life compositions by setting the timepieces among vintage pheasant feathers and ribbons'.
 
The aptly named 'Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend' wall sconces by Matali Casset for Made by Meta were crafted using paktong, a zinc, nickel and copper alloy traditionally imported from China and used for domestic fittings in the 18th century. Latchin's addition of four 'Ilios' disc and sphere wall lamps by Atelier Areti, the London design studio run by sisters Gwendolyn and Guillane Kerschbaumer, added a modern Deco-style touch.

Pale-pink walls lined with emerald-shaped windows revealed a mesmerising collection of current and archive pieces, including a rare collection of Bulgari Serpenti watches. Another unique addition were the drawings of fashion illustrator Nuno da Costa, whose swan-necked, jewel-bedecked girls were projected onto a dividing wall. 'I have always wanted to collaborate on an exhibition with Nuno,' McKay reveals. 'His drawings bring a vitality and youthfulness to fine jewellery. He has a deep understanding of its timeless appeal – its art status, if you like – and so is well placed to put that in a fashion context.'
 
Cartier's set of three contemporary 'Panthère' watches celebrated 100 years of the house's iconic design in white gold, onyx and pavé diamonds. Piaget reflected on its tradition of hammered gold, hard-stone dials and turquoise, exhibiting cuff watches from 1970 alongside pieces from this year's 'Extremely Piaget Paris Biennale' collection, while De Beers displayed a brand-new 'Aria' collection of cocktail watches.

Jaeger-LeCoultre's 'Joaillerie 101 Manchette' cuff played a trick on the eyes: nestled among a puzzle of pavé and white-gold squares, the tiny Calibre 101 ticked away, the miniature movement as impressive now as it was when it was created nearly 100 years ago, in 1929.

Next week we'll be posting our report on watch fair SalonQP – which pitches up at the Saatchi Gallery in London this weekend (8–10 November) – but as Harrods has just announced an ongoing partnership with the event, we wanted to be the first to reveal that it is previewing a special collection of unique pieces at the fair.

Now in its fourth year, Europe's top fine-watch fair is fast becoming one of the most important dates on the global fine-watch circuit. Here, the world’s top names – Harry Winston, Bulgari, Hermès – show with lesser-known makers and independents, such as MB&F (founder Maximilian Büsser’s quirky Flying Panda watch was one of last year’s highlights).

A selection of watchmakers have created the pieces especially for Harrods to celebrate the first birthday of their Fine Watch Department, which is the most important in Europe. The watches, debuted today at SalonQP and on show for the duration of the show, will be available to buy at Harrods at the end of next week.

Franck Muller, Audemars Piguet and Breguet are just some who have contributed, and it's a deftly curated mix, not least because it has some serious women's watches among it. Take the Audemars Piguet Lady Tuxedo automatic: it retains all the design cred of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak model but with a shimmer of diamonds making it less masculine in all the right ways.

Then there's Vacheron Constantin's Metiers d'Art piece. While not specifically for a man or a woman, it is so elegantly realised – the guilloché dial has an overlay of enamel – that it can be suited to anyone with a passion for beautiful things.

The watches that Hublot, Zenith and Maurice Lacroix have opted to display, on the other hand, are all fine examples of the extent of their design expertise, with variations on skeleton and tourbillon techniques taking pride of place.

During its SalonQP residency at the Saatchi Gallery this weekend, Harrods will sponsor the Seminar Theatre, which will host a series of presentations, workshops and demonstrations across the weekend.

Another major pull is that Harrods is also setting up a pop-up watch service and after-sales bar at SalonQP – the first time it has done so outside the store. So, if you want to experience its exemplary watch repair and cleaning services or pop in for a bespoke consultation, take your favourite timepieces down to the Saatchi Gallery this weekend.

As Frieze Art Fair becomes more and more entrenched on London's art scene, emerging artists are benefiting from the art mania that descends on the city each autumn.

New Sensations is probably the most visible example of that trickle-down effect. Launched just six years ago, the showcase of emerging artists founded by the Saatchi Gallery and Channel 4 is now the largest curated exhibition to take place during Frieze - partly due to joining forces with The Future Can Wait, a survey of young, progressive multidisciplinary artists set up by artist/patrons Zavier Ellis and Simon Rumley.

This week the combined show in the cavernous Victoria House in Bloomsbury Square includes the work of more than 50 artists, once again eclipsing all other exhibitions save for Frieze itself.

That it's free of charge has certainly helped garner attention. Anticipation is also building as to who will win the New Sensations 2012 prize - a career-propelling accolade last year won by Jonny Briggs. Judges, including artists John Stezaker and Richard Wilson, have already whittled down the vast number of entrants to a shortlist of 20, who make up the New Sensations section of the show. These include the four finalists: Nicolas Feldmeyer, Olivia Poppy Coles, Rafal Topolewski and Steven Allan.

A new partnership is also adding fresh intrigue to New Sensation 2012. The Saatchi Gallery has invited Absolut Vodka, longtime art patrons and collaborators with legends from Andy Warhol to Damien Hirst, to create a competition within the competition. The result, Absolut Blank, selected three artists from the New Sensations shortlist to undertake an original artwork using the Absolut bottle as a starting point.

The chosen artists, Jin Han Lee, Antonio Marguet and Natasha Peel, are displaying the end results this week; the winner will secure a funding for a studio space.

The joint show of young talent at Bloomsbury House runs until 14 October.