MARLÈNE HUISSOUD
Photo: Wallpaper* / Jovian Lim
Bronze Collection is a unique series by Marlène Huissoud exclusively commissioned by Sarah Myerscough Gallery for PAD 2018. The series explores the collaboration between Huissoud and London Bronze Casting, the collection includes the cocoon stool and the cocoon cabinet cast in bronze. Huissoud is an experimental designer. Marlène works as a freelance designer for different companies alongside the art & design areas, and created her own company in 2013. In 2014, she graduated from a MA Material Futures (known as Textile Futures) at Central Saint Martins’ School of Art and Design in London where she developed the project From Insects : an exploration of insect materials from the common honeybee and the Indian silkworm. Her work questions our way of making by challenging the properties of natural resources. She believes in the value of the concept, not only with an outcome but with the complete creative process. She has been named as one of the UK’s top 70 rising design stars representing the future of British design by the Design Council, won the AI Business Excellence Awards - Most Innovative Design Studio London - 2018, has been nominated by the Arts Foundation UK for the Material Innovation Award in 2016, won the Make me! Design Prize in 2015, nominated for Design Parade at Villa Noailles in 2015, won the Diploma Selection Award at Designblok in 2014. Her work as been exhibited worldwide in major Institutions such as Chamber New York, Design Miami Basel, Design Museum Barcelona, Artipelag Museum Stockholm, Design Days Dubaï, Rossana Orlandi Milan, Gallery Bensimon Paris, APalazzo Gallery Brescia, MAK Vienna. Marlene is currently based between Paris and London. The London Bronze Casting is an art and design foundary based in London. The foundary specilises in bespoke bronze and aluminium casting, made up of a team of skilled foundrymen with specilisms in metal work, patination and lost-wax bronze casting processes. ‘Marlène’s work is ambitious in its complexity, but her approach to these projects and knowing exactly what she wants to achieve made the process really enjoyable. We have leanered that we want to work with more people like Marlène.’ - Thomas Winstanley quoted from ‘Bug addict’ Rosa Bertoli, Wallpaper magazine, August 2018.
Studio Marlène Huissoud
Studio Marlène Huissoud
WALLPAPER HANDMADE 2018 London Bronze Casting + Studio Marlène Huissoud The silkworm cocoons has been used for centuries, in the silk making process, in the food industry and in the healthcare industry. Most of the worms are killed during their short existences and I’m looking at letting the worm, originally living in the cocoons, morph into a butterfly, respecting its growth.Using cocoons by respecting the lifetime of the insects allow me to mold silkworm cocoons in bronze, a material which is durable and eternal, freezing the beauty of nature for a long period of time. Silkworm’s cocoons are used in India and China, to clean and moisture the skin. For Wallpaper Handmade I have developed a series composed of a stool and two containers to sit and take care of ourselves. -Marlène Huissoud
PROCESS Houissoud collaborated with London Cast Bronzing, a foundary specilising in bespoke bronze and aluminium casting, made up of a team of skilled foundrymen with specilisms in metal work, patination and lost-wax bronze casting processes. Houissoud used raw cocoons as the base to make a rubber mould, which was then used to make a wax model and then coated in a ceramic shell, into which melted bronze was poured. The finishing processes such as jetwashing, sandblasting and waxing, required between eight to tewlve weeks for each work, ‘I wanted to use the cocoons differently and demonstrate that nature is precious’
-Marlene Huissoud from ‘Bug addict’ Rosa Bertoli, The Handmade Issue, August 2018, Wallpaper.
Cocoon stool , 2018 Silkworm coocoons cast in bronze 50 x 50 x 50 cm
Photo: James Champion
COCOON Series is looking at new ways of using silkworm cocoons without killing the worm generally killed during silk production. The silkworm is one of the most iconic insects that experience a morphosis throughout their evolution. They are born as a worm but then morph into a butterfly when they reache maturation. Within the silk industry most of the Bombyx Mori are killed in order to extract the silk from the cocoon, what if we let the worm become a butterfly? How can we use this material differently and celebrate the morphosis of this insect? The pieces in the series have been made via the accumulation of thousands of silkworm cocoons that are then varnished with a thin layer of natural honeybee bio resin. The slow making process of these pieces underlines the beauty of the insect world. -Marlène Huissoud
Cocoon Cabinet, 2018 Silkworm cocoons cast in silicon bronze with a black patina, lost wax casting 120 H x 60 W x 50 D cm
Cocoon Cabinet, 2018 Silkworm cocoons cast in silicon bronze with a black patina, lost wax casting 120 H x 60 W x 50 D cm Cocoon stool, 2018 Silkworm coocoons cast in bronze 50 x 50 x 50 cm
Photo: James Champion
PAD London, installation view, 2018. Photo: James Harris
Photo: Studio Marlène Huissoud
Cocoon cabinet #4, 2017 Silkworm’s cocoons and honeybee bio resin 140 x 100 x 45 cm
Cocoon bench commissioned by the Victoria and Albert Museum for the Digital Design Weekend at the London Design Festival in 2017
Photo: Studio Marlène Huissoud
Photo: Studio Marlène Huissoud
Cocoon Cabinet #5, 2017 Silkworm’s cocoons and honeybee bio resin and oak base 120 H x 60 x 50 cm
Cocoon Wardrobe, 2017 Silkworm’s cocoons, honeybee bio resin and oak base 180 x 100 x 65 cm
Photo: Studio Marlène Huissoud
Photo: Studio Marlène Huissoud
Frozen Bench, 2017 Silkworm cocoons cast in Pewter 50 x 100 x 45 cm
2018 Raw Design curated by Glenn Adamson at Museum of Craft and Design San Francisco. Photo: Henrik Kam
Booth B7 Salon Art & Design 2017, Park Armory, New York. Photo: Dominic Harris Cinimod Studio
Portrait Photo: Kat_Green
Awa rd s & G ra n t s 2018 Business Excellence Awards | Most Innovative Design Studio | London, 2018 Decorex International | Future Heritage | London, 2017 The Arts Foundation Fellowship | Material Innovation | Nominated | UK, 2016 IN Residence 10th Edition | Workshop | Turino, 2016 Make me! | Winner | Lodz Design Festival, 2015 Design Parade 10 | Nominated | Villa Noailles, Hyères, 2015 SEED FUND | Winner | London, 2015 DESIGN COUNCIL | Selected to represent the future of British design’One to Watch’ | London, 2015 Ambiente Messe Frankfurt | Talents 2015 | Frankfurt, 2015 DESIGNBLOK | Winner Product Design – Diploma Selection | Prague, october 2014 MATERIALICA | Nominated MATERIALICA Design + Technology Student Award 2014 | Munich, 2014 IDEAS TAP | Graduate Award – Design category | London, 2014 CSM Innovation | Selected by SEE for Pulse London 2014 | London, 2014 Roche Bobois | Finalist Design competition | London-Paris, 2013 FID Drawings for the future | Nominated | Paris, 2012 Lectures Global Design Forum – London Design Festival – Victoria & Albert Museum | Material Disruption, september 2018 www.globaldesignforum.com Spazio Nobile Gallery | Of Insects and Men, september 2018 www.spazionobile.com Designskolen Kolding | Workshop, march 2018 www.designskolenkolding.dk Madrid Design Festival | Making with nature, february 2018 www.madriddesignfestival.com DesignTransfer | Material Changes, june 2017 www.designtransfer.udk-berlin.de Clerkenwell Design Week | Material Matters, may 2017 www.clerkenwelldesignweek.com Camberwell College of Arts, march 2017 www.arts.ac.uk Be Brave | Operae, november 2016 www.operae.biz Imaginative rituals with IN RESIDENCE | IQos Embassy, october 2016 www.inresidence.it Super Talks – The Joy & Jeopardy of Making: Nature Transformed | Panel Discussion at London Design Fair, september 2016 www.craftscouncil.org.uk | www.londondesignfair.co.uk A Future Made | Panel Discussion at Design Miami/ Basel with Aesop, the Crafts Council UK, and the New Craftsmen, june 2016 www.craftscouncil.org.uk | www.aesop.com | www.thenewcraftsmen.com Biosalon at the Futuro House | organised by the Crafts Council and Central Saint Martins, december 2015 www.craftscouncil.org.uk | www.arts.ac.uk Norwich University of the Arts, december 2015 www.nua.ac.uk Education Central Saint Martins | MA Material Futures | London, 2014 National School of Design & Fine Art | BA Textile Design | Lyon, 2011
SARAH MYERSCOUGH GALLERY
Viewings by appointment only Studio 401, Southbank House Black Prince Rd, London SE1 7SJ UK Tel: +44 (0) 20 7495 0069 info@sarahmyerscough.com
Drawings by Studio Marlène Huissoud