The Art of Conversation:
Its been a busy week as usual for us here at Idea Generation Gallery. The Storm finally weathered as Right But Wrong drew to a conclusion with a hugely successful Off the Wall auction. Storm’s end of show auction was a resounding success with everyone in attendance taking home some amazing bargains (including Pink Floyd’s Ummagumma album cover for a ridiculous £250 – with the frame thrown in!) and a lucky few walking away with pieces for free, having answered questions correctly as part of Storm’s often impossible ‘quiz’.
Not ones for resting on our laurels, the day after the auction the guys (and gals) from Inventory Studios took over the space in preparation for their own exhibition launch! All was mayhem and a little bit of madness as the London based Inventory team, and their German partners Bank, prepared the gallery for the edgy new Art of Conversation exhibition. The gallery underwent a total transformation, with the Art of Conversation team painting a signature wall with the exhibition info, in retro orange and blue - several versions of the poster design are on sale from the gallery for the bargain price of £5.
Signature wall over and done with, the next few days saw a stream of interesting objects and artefacts passing through the gallery doors. As a very crude list these include: a giant floating balloon, rotating aeroplanes, a seesaw, an ancient TV monitor, a collection of intern applications and a giant rubber band ball to name but a few.
To elaborate…the basic premise of the exhibition is an exploration of creativity and innovation through a visual game of ‘Chinese whispers’. Each piece of work was created with the help of Skype hosted conversations between 2 high profile international design studios: Inventory (London) and Bank (Berlin). Over the course of 90 days, 20 entirely original works were created, each in response to the previous piece, with the final outcome taking any form. A very clever idea in our opinion, yet more proof that Skype is becoming one of those indispensible 21st century gadgets – my grandparents even demonstrated their knowledge of it to me just the other day.
The look of the final finished installation is on the whole slick, neat and ordered as one might expect from a gaggle of designers. However, thrown into the mix are a whole load of interesting works that would definitely look just at home as part of a Fine Art exhibition, or immersive installation. My particular favourite (and that of many a visitor) is Eat sleep Work/Play’s giant floating balloon – an homage to the balloon ride which the first design team were given to kick off the whole design process.
Tuesday just gone saw the formal launch of The Art of Conversation. In expectation of a huge turnout we stockpiled the Becks, filled up the chiller bins and waited in anticipation. Sure enough, the masses soon arrived…
I think it’s safe to say, the interactive aspect of many of the works went down a treat - namely Oscar & Ewan’s Sea Saw (which to the relief of all was not to blame for an accidents) and Simon Elvin’s aeroplane installation – blotto - not just with the kids, but with everyone.
With the Becks all gone and an atmosphere of jubilation in full swing, those left carried on up the road to an after party, in associated with Dazed at Dalston’s Stag’s Head. Those of us who had work the next morning remained and pieced everything back together (and had a sneaky play on the seesaw)…
The Art of Conversation: London-Berlin runs until May 24th here (at Idea Generation Gallery, Shoreditch, in case you hadn’t figured that out already) before moving on to Program in Berlin from the 12th June - 3rd July. Each designer featured in the show has also created a limited edition print, available to purchase from the gallery or from the Art of Conversation’s rather snazzy website – priced £25.
