insight Archive

So apparently Ron Arad is Restless, I would be too if it was that difficult to find a cocktail at a cocktail party. None the less the launch of his new show at The Barbican was a nice buzz of people bouncing on pod-like things and being generally design fabulous. I went with one of fashion’s most fabulous jewellery designers Lara Bohinc, a nice combination as many of the pieces reminded me of jewellery – surprisingly mostly the architectural work he’s done. She filled me in on a few design nuggets from the 60′s which you can really see in her work too.

The downstairs part of the show was mainly functional pieces which are recognisable to most, so after a game of ping-pong on Ron’s famous table, very functional, we turned it into a shopping trip.

Lara went big and decided on the mirror polished stainless steel book case named “Oh the farmer and the cowmen should be friends”, in the shape of the United States of America. At 5.5m wide and rumoured to cost £1million she was a very big spender.

I had my eye on something that might actually fit in my apartment, well maybe the next one, his Thumbprint pieces from 2008. Sadly they really reminded me of McQueen’s A/W 2007 show, though i think things will continue to do that. To me these were the most beautiful pieces in the show, crossing boundaries between functionality and sculpture – an objet d’art you can sit on, though you might need under seat heating in winter.

We bumped into music impresario Trevor Jackson who was telling me how bad he was in bed, at that point i thought it best time to go, not with Trevor though.