24DESIGN

24 Design – a brand new project by Unit 24 Gallery – focuses on bringing together a group of 24 artists and designers from around the world to create design objects. 24 Design is an international platform for collaborative creation for artists working across mediums. 24 Design limited editions will be available in our showcase based at Unit 24 Gallery in London and soon also online.

For sales and product information contact

Agata Mazur
24DESIGN project manager
agata@24design.co
+44 20 3129 9198

For PR requests please contact
Magda Zawadzka
PR Assistant
magda@24design.co

24DESIGN @ UNIT24
20 Great Guildford St
London SE1 0FD

Zara Arsenyan

ART NOUVEAU BY ZARA

Zara Arsenyan was born in Armenia and is based in Barcelona. Her two passions are visual arts and the theatre. Zara designs fabrics and theatre costumes. Fascinated by Art Nouveau the artist started designing unique and beautiful jewellery made of elements of antique furniture and jewellery.

The beginning of the fascination  

My story with the jewellery began in Barcelona, Art Nouveau city, the city I know. Once while visiting a small flea market I noticed in a pile of old jewellery some elements from the beginning of the last century. I took it in my hands and realised that we have lost the idea of aesthetics common for our predecessors. And along with it, the possibility to create unique objects. The only thing that counts now is time spent on creating something, but what we lose in the same time is an individual approach.

Zara’s unique technique 

My fascination with Art Nouveau began a long time ago. And as soon as I had chance to make my dreams come true, I started searching for anything associated with the époque. Everything I use in my creation is authentic. I try all elements to be antique, even neck-chains, although it’s not always successful and some are exceptionally bought in contemporary shops. Most common question concerning my jewellery is – what kind of metals it is made of? To be honest – I have no idea. I don’t want to focus on the materials – the idea is to give the second life to something that is beautiful but already discarded, despite being precious. Probably some elements are silver and gold elements or even gems, but I wish not to put a stress on this aspect. To me the fact of their existence is the most valuable one.   

Appreciating Art Nouveau

I try to live like a river. To flow and take what life brings. After leaving Armenia in 1993 I wasn’t able to predict what was going to happen, so I decided  simply to live! In the same way – by chance – it happened that I  came to Barcelona.  Fascinated by Art  Nouveau I adore everything that is somehow related to this time. Its spirit, line, aesthetics, look. When I first saw elements of antique jewellery, I discovered I can create my own Art Nouveau! 

Olga Kiwerski

VA S K O L G  by Olga Kiwerski

V A S K O L G jewellery, known as high-end jewels, thanks to their three specificities:

THE VOLUME

Extravagant proportions, these body sets have been noticed on fashion shows or exhibitions… Beaubourgor 104 arts centers, l’Hôtel de Crillon, embassies …

THE MODULARITY

Unique, one-of-a-kind and unclassified, these jewels are modulable. This brand works on the object in the space and reveals material to volume. The creations can deal with different aspects, be worn on the waist and on the neck, right side or upside down. The piece of jewelry becomes mood, desire, temptation.

THE JEWEL AND ITS FUNCTION

A mystery in a ‘Couture’ style, Olga gives a function to her jewels. A piece of jewelry can enlighten or spread music, turn into address or be used as a lipstick case…

*

Born in Paris, designer Olga Kiwerski is the daughter of an art historian & renowned graphic designer from Poland and painter who later entered jewelry design for numerous fashion Maisons in Paris.
It is in this world of creation and unique essence – of the chic garden of Bagatelle and high-end catwalks and within a glamorous and unconventional universe that Olga grows. She is intrigued by designer and artists alike, such as McQueen, Dior and Gaultier, and dancers, choreographers and performers of all kinds. They inspire her work forever. Curious, she travels around the world while studying communication and cultural mediation at La Sorbonne.

It is within these years of formulating, training and developing spiritual awareness that Olga began to realize the potential of her concept: Jewellery Sculptures. And it was in this realization that VA S K O L G was born.

BIJOUX SCULPTURES by VASKOLG

Olga’s designs represent a symbiosis between the body and the accessory. Whether worn on the back or the bust, Vaskolg jewelry is architectural and rhythmic. Stunning and unique pieces that blurs the boundaries between jewelry and art, It creates and perpetuates the codes of new luxury fashion.

All creations is handmade in Paris, with pure and distinguished materials, as silk, soft viscose ribbon, lacquered shell, iron, crimson Orchids textile, cotton, natural Eucalyptus and natural Cotton flowers, leather, feathers, mohair or Peru Alpaca thread, coral pearls, glass…

www.vaskolg.com

Takayuki Hara

TAKAYUKI HARA

Born in Tokyo, Japan, Takayuki Hara’s work concerns sexuality, identity, and repression. His unique ability lies within the transformation of these elements into graphic and intricate linear drawings or highly imaginative and beautiful sculptures embracing the often dark and sexual subject matters. His influence comes from various sources such as old master paintings (from Da Vinci to Bosch) to Japanese pop subculture (Takashi Murakami to novelist Haruki Murakami). French philosopher Giles Deleuze is one of the influences he had, along with strong influence from Freud. His seemingly eclectic collections of influences are tied together and well digested, feeding his work visually and conceptually, creating the seamless sense in his work, transforming those differences into one new entity, unravelling new potentiality of being. He studied creative writing in Japan, the rich narrative elements of his work which tie those creations together come from the background as a writer. He lives and works in London, and is currently tutoring at City and Guilds of London Art School.

The idea of shape shifters has travelled through history. It can be found in many myths and stories all over the world, or even in many forms of contemporary culture such as film and literature. My work is not concerned with the details of these stories, but rather what they represent and reveal metaphorically in this world of uncertainty.

One of my inspirations was the poem “Metamorphosis” by Ovid, in which human forms constantly transform into other entities, suggesting a new potentiality of being. In this world we are living in, nothing ever stays the same, we are in a constant state of flux; shapeshifting. I became interested in the idea of shapeshifting as a way to open up the unknown space hidden underneath the surface where organs are revealed.  Full of potentiality as an opposed idea of psychoanalysis, a concept Freud and Lacan coined, based on the binary ideas of ‘conscious’ and ‘unconscious’, or ‘whole’ and ‘lack’. My aim is to go beyond psychoanalysis to free ourselves from restraint, to reach a place where endless potentiality exists without boundaries.

Glass Domes involve transcendence of existence and preservation of time within. Within this containment, a subject is automatically becomes an object, forcing it to transform its perception. Time stops as glass divides the inner and outer border, creating a new autonomous world inside. Viewers are forced to look inside of this complete containment, walking around its globe, and it changes the relationship between subjects and objects again. They can only embrace the new autonomy, but they cannot enter. Glass Domes contain this mystery and wonder.                                                                       Takayuki Hara

www.takayukihara.com

Ewa Batko

Immerse yourself in  Les univers d’Ewa Batko….. 

Ewa Batko was born in Warsaw and lives and Works in Paris.

She is a daughter of a researcher in Institute of Aviation (aeronautics) and a stage manager in Documentary Film Studio in Warsaw. The terrace of her room in family house is dominating over the garden, where her mother planted thousands of plants blooming constantly from early Spring till late Autumn. It’s where she decided to become a painter, feeling that “the artist is always conquered by nature”, so all he can is to translate it and to transcend it. A leaf, a flower, a fruit, a stream of springing water or a ray of light in its iridescent reflection will always be for her the most inspiring spectacle.

At age of 17 she was an extra in Wajda’s film and later the main character in a TV film presenting International Biennial of Art in Cracow “Intergrafia 1974”, which won the Art Films Festival in Barcelona.The young woman went to Paris, where she became a student of ENSBA, Academy of Fine Arts at Quai Malaquais, on the painting department.

Very shortly she got interested in a conceptual installation, its transience and consequence – according to her own words and the result of her work is “a metamorphosis of things form visible into invisible and vice versa”, the alchemy in which idea is aiming the transition from “obvious into unexpected”.

“Ambience, nuance, sensitivity, synthesis, union, fusion” – these are the key words in Ewa’s creative researches.

Christian Lacroix, at the time of his great success, promoted Ewa’s jewellery creations for la Haute Couture.  She was always designing for Hubert deGivenchy, Hermès, Thierry Mugler to finally launch her own brand “Ewa Batko”.

A new époque began when Dominique Wattine-Arnault, the President of Fred-Joaillier  spotted her talent and invited her to design the exclusive concept for the windows of her showbase at Place Vendôme .  Louis Vuitton Malletier also committed  Ewa to design the show windows in the Flagship Store at  Champs –Elysées, such as “Lune”, “Elastique”, “Spirale”, “Stretch” and to other international concepts.

Ewa Batko immerses herself in different artistic domains, including design and jewellery, via the idea of space of luxury show windows and conceptual installations, surprisingly compelling in “delicate lines fervently singing the joy of life”.

A.C. & J-G.R.

www.ewabatko.com