Jessie Higginson gave us the time for a quick chat concerning the upcoming Hidden Art Cornwall Design Fair.
How did the idea for the Design Fair come about?
As a franchise of Hidden Art in London, we try to run a similar range of services and events for our Cornwall membership to those run in London. Hidden Art started as an Open Studios event and so we wanted to run something similar in Cornwall. It is, however, much harder to run an open studios event here due to the huge geographical area. We decided it would be more effective to run a Design Fair, with all the designer-makers in one place.
We are running the Design Fair on August bank holiday weekend. London run their Open Studios at Christmas time, but we felt that a Design Fair run at the height of the tourist season would be more likely to reach out-of-county visitors as well as local people.
What is the attraction of using Godolphin House for the show?
Godolphin House is an amazing place. It has a fascinating history and a wonderful relaxed atmosphere. The house is privately owned, which meant the owners were approachable, and they have been really accommodating and enthusiastic about this project. Godolphin also already has a good reputation for running events, and a loyal local following. They run twice annual ‘Good Food Fairs’, which have had really high visitor attendance.
The House is in the middle of nowhere, but then so are a lot of places in Cornwall!
What are some of the products to watch out for in the Repeat and Variation exhibition?
Jethro Macey’s ‘Lace Paving Slabs’. Jethro has taken a new approach to the standard concrete paving slab by designing a concrete slab with a digital, floral texture/pattern. Jethro worked with Illustrator and the Roland Milling Machine to turn a piece of lace fabric into an unusual, functional product. Jethro launched the Lace Paving slabs on the University College Falmouth stand at Salone Satellite, Milan, where he drew the attention of press such as Vogue, Living etc and Domus.
What else does the show have to offer?
Well we have 53 Cornish designer-makers with stands and two from Hidden Art in London, with a wide range of work for sale. We also have an exhibition of work actually in Godolphin House called Hidden Art Curated. The Hidden Art Curated project presents contemporary design in an unconventional context and is curated by Katherine Sorrell, an established writer on design, craft and interior spaces. Katherine has chosen a range of work by Hidden Art Cornwall members to display in the traditional room settings of Godolphin House. The resulting exhibition is an exciting dialogue between old and new that will transform the house and invite visitors to look afresh at contemporary design and the house’s historic collection.
We will also have design-led family entertainment and the Finer China plate raffle, as we want visitors to visit The Design Fair with shopping in mind, but we also want them to have a fun day out. With so many families on holiday in Cornwall on bank holiday weekend we want design to be accessible to children too!
