A quiet courtyard, tucked away behind a busy main road in the North London suburb of Crouch End: An iron gate, a few artisan workshops, then the studio of two artists well known for their abundance of ingenious ideas and complex works. This is Studio Glithero where designers Tim Simpson and Sarah van Gameren produce a staggering range of furniture, products and installations. Smaller products include expertly crafted paper aeroplanes (employing traditional print press techniques and an envelope-folding machine) and organ music translated into the weave of a scarf: here fabric is produced on a weave machine, using organ music punch cards to create the design.
The Les French Furniture Series is a collection of bamboo frames of varying heights. Whether coffee tables or shelves – each piece is first constructed in bamboo and wax before being cast in bronze. Their Blueware Collection is a re-interpretation of the blueprinting process where the white-on-blue floral decoration is an echo of the classic Wedgewood Jasperware. To make the pattern, Tim Simpson explains, weed specimens are pressed, dried and carefully arranged on to ceramic vases and tiles. Then they are painted with photosensitive chemicals and exposed to UV light to turn the surface a deep blue. The leaves are then taken away, leaving their white imprint.
Glithero now have hundreds of weeds stored in large glass containers. They also invented a machine that serves as a dark room and “rotates the vases like a Doner Kebab”. A relatively straightforward project, easy to understand. More complicated is their Poured Bar in London's Corinthia Hotel which was put together with a team of workers. Tim Simpson and Sarah van Gaveren poured successive layers of quick-setting concrete (dyed in different shades of blue) in six meter long moulds to form a bar in the hotel's ballroom. Once the layers had hardened, the resulting slab was flipped and hoisted on to a wooden frame, revealing a collage of blue shapes and a smooth top over which to serve drinks.
Equally astonishing is the installation Burn Burn Burn where a flame – made from flammable paint, inspired by Fred Astaire’s ceiling dance - moves slowly over the wall, dances on the floor, up chairs, down table legs and leaves a trace of charred black remains. “The reason for this was to create animated moment for a large gathering, whether a wedding or a funeral”, explains Sarah van Gaveren who thought of the paint in her kitchen and developed it further with the help of a chemist. “The paint has a substance like silk-screen paint and is dye-able in every colour”.
Like most of the studio's projects, the whole spectacles of Poured Bar's creation and Burn Burn Burn were filmed and carefully choreographed. Boundaries don’t seem to exist in Glithero’s work. At first glance one might be thinking that these pieces are art for art’s sake. By looking closer, one finds that each body of work has a serious message. Each project, small or large, has one thing in common: An emphasis on the process of making, captured through film, performance or installation the moment when a design starts from nothing. In Glithero’s words: “The journey is destination and reward”.
“For us the process is equally important as the finished product”, confirms Tim Simpson. Born in 1982, he comes from Swindon in South-West England. Sarah van Gaveren (nee 1981) was born in Utrecht in the Netherlands. Both met in 2006 while studying product design at the Royal College of Art. Tim Simpson worked on a variation of coin operated telescopes to make alternative views of a town. Sarah van Gaveren worked on “The Big Dipper”, her graduation piece: A machine that produces candle chandeliers by rotating and automatically dipping wick into vats of molten wax. More a performance than a product, these chandaliers demonstrate the complete life of a product to an audience, from the moment a chandelier is conceived until the moment it burns and perishes. “We found we had a lot in common”, Tim Simpson says. “We both wanted to explore issues of mass production, consumption and accidental aesthetics within”. This interest led to a personal and creative relationship. In 2008 they formed their Studio (Glithero is the maiden name of Tim Simpson’s mother). They also wrote a manifesto about their work. “Miracle Machines and the Lost Industries” is a booklet about man's relationship to machine. It aims to stimulate critique and add depth to design. “The more we know about manufacturing methods the less we will be at the mercy of those industrial concerns whose only motive is profit”, the book states. “When it is understood and rationalized, an object becomes more tangible and rewarding to us. And if we are able to relate a deeper emotional attachment to it, we will value it more”.
It is a poetic approach to design that, Glithero hope, will lead to an end product that possesses an intimate connection with the machine, designer and audience. “We want to bring responsibility into the world”, says Tim Simpsom. “If you can understand the work – where it comes from, how it was made, the thinking behind it – this makes a huge difference”.
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