Alcova Project Space is a new entity within Alcova. In this “exhibition within an exhibition,” we collect things that intrigue us – projects that capture our imagination or that touch us deeply in some way. Here we give vent to our curatorial instincts to piece together an image of what most resonates with us on the contemporary design scene, emerging or otherwise.
What do these pieces have in common? In some cases, it is a question of aesthetic language; in others, it is a certain resonance with the spirit of our times. For this first episode, we chose to investigate three thematic strands, each touching on distinct aspects of the present.
The first is Digital Ornamentalism. Informed by extremely heterogeneous visual influences, the works presented in this section strike us for an aesthetic language which seemingly attempts to transmute the digital obsession of recent years back into material form. It’s as if the NFT boom suddenly found itself projected into the physical world and at the same time attempted to surpass it, transcending it while retaining its decorative signature. This is the case for Hannah Lim’s pottery, even though her work originates from a research on ancient Asian craftsmanship; and it is even more literal for Ryan Decker’s lamps or Isabel Rower’s wooden stools, liberally tagged with illustrations.
