Around Town...

New Oxford Street, WC1

London Design Festival 2012 - Tom Dixon at The Dock...

I paid a trip to Tom Dixon’s LDF12 event at The Dock yesterday. Literally in the back of beyond, but still well worth a visit as it was an interesting mix up of pop-up shops and interactive art installations.

With his host hat firmly in place, it was more a case of 'enter' through the gift-shop, as first stop was Mr D's retail emporium which stocks a number of his classic designs as well as the new 'Eclectic' collection; smaller objets and gifting pieces such as a door-stop fashioned like a trad gents shoe or a miniature factory which is actually a moneybox. Quite kitsch and wee bit of a whiff of Jonathan Adler. There is also a range of highly scented candles. 

Be Open Space was the main focus of the site and basically involved a number of plywood sheds in the courtyard where different artists were exhibiting their wares/creating oddities.

My absolute favourite had to be the Traces ‘Junk’ Shop, which on first glance appeared to be stuffed with old tat from a car boot sale, but in fact every single piece had been specifically crafted by a number of designers for the installation and were really rather wonderful. This included an interactive game housed in a junk-shop bureau, where we had to answer questions and solve puzzles in order to make the next drawer open and reveal another clue. Just brilliant! 

Faye Toogood’s The Back Room project featured a studio and workshop next door to each other, creating indoor shoes out of felt (‘House Hightops’ – v.ugly). It was intended to be a celebration of the “post industrial” era.

Design on Chocolate featured the likes of Lee Broom, Faye Toogood and Tom Dixon collaborating with premium chocolate brands, such as Coco Maya and Rocco, to create weird and not that wonderful pieces sculptured from chocolate. 

Boat Drinks Mr Dixon!