MoDiP Christmas outing

Last week the MoDiP team went to London for a team building day*.  We visited two exhibitions, Pop Art Design at The Barbican which runs until 9th February 2014, and Hello, My Name is Paul Smith at the The Design Museum which runs until 9th March 2014.

*Christmas jolly

We enjoyed both exhibitions.  We were interested by the amount of polyurethane foam and acrylic used in the Pop Art movement.  One piece of particular note was the 1964 Gunnar Aagaard Anderson chair, Portrait of My Mother's Chesterfield, an example of which can also be found at MoMA.  This chair is made up of layers of polyurethane foam poured into place by hand, building up the chair form from the ground up.  Susan commented that it was like handmade 3D printing.

After viewing the whole exhibition the team wanted to take in the atmosphere of the Barbican estate* so we took a moment to sit on the lakeside terrace and enjoy our surroundings. 

*have a rest.

Photo courtesy of PeteD on Flickr via creative commons

The added bonus was the fabulous Robin Day furniture.

Julie Connery (MoDiP Administrator), Pam Langdown (Collections Manager) and Susan Lambert (Head of MoDiP) enjoying a well earned rest.

I got to have a little sit down too, holding up proof of where we have been.

The seating we made use of is part of the Sussex range designed by Robin Day and installed at the centre in the mid 2000s.  The white sections are made of glass reinforced polypropylene and the arms and legs are galvanised steel plate. We all agreed that they were very comfortable.

Although the Paul Smith exhibition had less plastics in it they were still present including a giant rabbit-shaped interactive rubbish bin designed to encourage people to throw their litter away rather then drop it in the street. The exhibition itself had a refreshing feel to it, the text and audio/visuals were all in the first person, 'this was the size of my first shop'.  It was the kind of exhibition which stayed with me for days, popping back into my thoughts without me noticing and making me smile.

I would whole heartedly recommend both exhibitions, Pop Art Design displays some really iconic pieces and Hello, My Name is Paul Smith shows how an exhibition about a living designer can be like a chat and a personal tour of someone's life, work and inspiration.


Louise Dennis (Assistant Curator)