Thomas Heatherwick at Haunch of Venision
English Artist and designer Thomas Heatherwick first came to my attention when he was commissioned in 1997 by Harvey Nichols to design the store’s windows for London Fashion Week. The dramatically-lit plywood sculpture called ‘Autumn Intrusion’ wove in and out of the windows and climbed up the front of the building. Despite its short lifespan, the project was explosively popular and won him a D&AD gold award and copious amounts of media attention.
‘Autumn Intrusion’, Harvey Nichols, London, 1997 – photographed by Steve Speller
Today, Heatherwick is best known for his innovative use of engineering and materials in public monuments and sculptures such as the controversial ‘Bang’ in Manchester.
‘Bang’, 2004
At Haunch of Venison gallery in London until 7 November, 2009 Thomas is displaying the world’s first single-component metal furniture extruded using the world’s largest extrusion machine.
The exhibition entitled ‘Extrusions’ has been 18 years in the making and includes 6 extruded, aluminium benches made without the use of fixtures or fittings. Each piece consists of a single piece of aluminium is polished for 300 hours to achieve a mirror finish (the images below show the pieces before polishing).
The pieces are early prototypes for a final outdoor installation which will be constructed and exhibited in 2010.
Extrusions is at Haunch of Venison, 6 Burlington Gardens, London W1s 3ET.
