Ornate丨Bethan Laura Wood

Ornate is a solo show by Bethan Laura Wood for Nilufar Gallery which celebrates a decade of dialogue between Wood and gallerist Nina Yashar.

New works, shown alongside existing pieces by the designer, are partnered with historical works selected by Nina Yashar, to offer a wonderful journey into private lives and hidden spaces.

In this period of instability, when people are feeling the importance of having “a room of one’s own” in the tradition of Virginia Woolf, Wood takes references from that historical period and in particular the British Aesthetic Movement and Art Nouveau, to create pieces that blur the line between two-dimensional decoration and three-dimensional form.

Wood’s new work focuses on the boudoir – a woman’s private space for both spiritual contemplation and physical cultivation – and the objects that may be found there. The designer invites the viewer to “travel through her mind’s eye” to the many cities and cultures that have played an important role in informing and influencing her practice over the last 10 years.

Wood’s work is the realisation of both dreaming, her imagination, and reality, the culmination of her travels, for residencies and work, across Europe, to Mexico, California and East Asia. Working directly with or in response to exceptional craftspeople and the particular colours and materials palettes of the cities she visits, Bethan creates remarkable designs, from exuberant glass chandeliers made in dialogue between Mexican and Italian craftsmen, to intricate Italian textiles and Bavarian ceramics, pushing their boundaries and her own. Back in London, the designer continues to reimagine those experiences in the pieces she makes, combining her skill with colour and precision of manufacturing, with reference to the contextual history and meaning of objects and aesthetics.

Wood is especially interested in jewellery and physical adornment, which underpins her latest collection of projects. “Traditionally, such objects and practices are the ways in which women have expressed their identity, status and independence,” she says. “Especially in the past, when property ownership was restricted, except for that which could be worn and displayed on women’s own bodies. What women choose to wear became vitally important.”

For her 2021 show, she rescales and reimagines these forms into objects that inhabit architectural spaces.

Ornate Bedhead and Sconces

Turning on its head the notion that superficial ornamentation should be stripped away in favour of “pure” design, Bethan has created structure and form from the pattern up, making the pattern intrinsic to the design. A series of wiggle and curve modules interlock to create a variety of structures. Many references inform the shapes, echoing Bethan’s travels and inspirations over the past decade, from the copper fish of Venice, to Mexican Art Deco, and the Samurai Kabuto of Japan.

The first pieces of the new collection are a decorative bedhead and pair of scones, inspired by a mix of Peggy Guggenheim’s bedhead by Alexander Calder, and James McNeill Whistler’s “Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room” (one of the few remaining examples of an Aesthetic Movement interior). Bethan was interested to emulate three-dimensional pattern, which sits between embellishment and structure.

The aluminium is CNC milled and bespoke anodised with Aluminium specialist Neal Feay, then hand-assembled and punctuated with brass pin details in Bethan’s studio, to create contemporary jewellery for the home.

Meisen Cabinets and Desk

Originally an investigation into handles, whose detailed construction became jewellery for furniture, this project has developed into cabinets and a desk with curvaceous forms dressed in ALPI’s beautiful veneer, which echoes Bethan’s love of Meisen Kimonos.

On seeing the ALPI veneer mid-process, Bethan was fascinated with its complex composition, just as she had been with the dying process of Meisen Kimono fabric. Bethan hand-selected each sheet of veneer, to showcase ripples and waves of colour, which depict a unique moment in the fabrication process before reworking to achieve product uniformity. The feathered edges of each colour wave created by the natural wood grain resemble the shimmering, almost vibrating, patterns of the weft and warp in Ikat weaving, which are used to produce Meisen fabric.

Bethan’s continued interest in materials that cross the divide between natural and manmade, and the processes of mass production and skilled craftsmanship, is taken forward in these pieces, which present a recognisable visual echo between Meisen fabric and wood veneer.

To create the cabinets and desk, Bethan partnered pattern with forms inspired by entomology, in particular quoting the legs and antennae of crickets and the patterned elytron of beetles. The traditional forms of East Asian cabinets and chests, also a strong influence on the Aesthetic Movement, are also quoted.

Bon Bon Chandelier and Sconces

Bon Bon is developed with specialist Pyrex artisan, Pietro Viero, mixing milky and transparent glass to create this sickly-sweet confection of flowers. The individual Bon Bon blooms are shaped referencing the bubbly curves of bonbon jars and dishes and reflect the pastel milky glass.

Each flower is mounted to an individual stem of either brushed steel or brass and grouped together to create delicate bunches of blooms, which may be wall-mounted or hung as a chandelier.

Developed during the pandemic lockdown, when touches of nature in the home became a special treat, Bon Bon references western style arrangements of flowers used to bring nature and colour into the home.

Aperitivo Mirrors

Made in collaboration with Venetian mirror specialists, Barbini, continuing from the Tutti-frutti Melon mirror, Bethan further explores the world of Venetian mirrors, fascinated as she is with the beauty of handmade swirls and curls, and the optical cutting that may create marks like stylised droplets of juice or the pip of a exotic fruit. With this project, Bethan continues her passion for fake food and the blurred line between the natural patterns and colours found in fruit and vegetables with the artifice of stylised food imagery and presentation.

Bethan combines modern cutting techniques alongside traditional hand-formed details to show how this ancient tradition may reflect changing times in contemporary crafts. With this collection, Bethan adds an Olive, Gherkin and Aubergine slice to the Aperitivo, being served in the Ornate boudoir.

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