Melt silver, and it pours like milk. Hammer it, and it still moves – but much more slowly.
The work of the British silversmith Ndidi Ekubia is inspired by this idea of flow. Her abstract vessels feature an all-over texture of hammered marks. The effect is like rippling waves, as if the metal were caught in liquid form.
For Mirror Mirror, Ekubia has created a custom suite of objects, with the graduated sizes of a garniture - a set of ceramics you sometimes see on historic mantelpieces. Their reflective surfaces play off those of two large pier glasses (mirrors supplied to Chatsworth by John Gumley in 1703), and an impressive silver chandelier in the style of Daniel Marot, commissioned by the 1st Duke to celebrate acquiring the Dukedom. In this stately company, Ekubia’s gleaming vessels introduce a note of pure, surging vitality.




Continue reading

Painted Hall
Maker Bench (Hexagon) prototype, 2018
oak, walnut
Maker Bench (Hexagon) 2018
oak, walnut
Joris Laarman (b.1979), The Netherlands

Grotto
Cryo III, 2022
Steel, wood polystyrene, polyurea, aluminium foil, resin, suede, onyx
Concretion (edition 3/8), 2021
Aluminium
Chris Schanck (b. 1975), USA

The Chapel
Pew Bench/Moon (edition 2 of 8), 2016
Spoon Chair / Moon (edition 1 of 8), 2016
Spoon Chair / Moon (prototype), 2016
all sand-cast bronze, silver nitrate
Lode II (edition 1 of 8), 2021
Trove I, 2022
Trove II, 2022
Plot II (Prototype), 2022
all hand-carved Purbeck marble
Faye Toogood (b.1977), UK

The Oak Room
Hoard of Oak Hill, 2022
hand-carved oak
Hoard I, 2022
hand-carved bog oak
Hoard II, 2022
hand-carved bog oak
Faye Toogood (b. 1977), UK

Chapel Corridor
Rhythms Vase, 2014
white stoneware clay, with stained highlights
Ingxondorha (Volatile Rocky Terrain), 2022
Umthombo (Spring), 2022
Umgodi (A Mine), 2022
Amaza (Waves), 2022
Isiziba (A Pool), 2022
glazed, hand-coiled stoneware
Cornish Waterfall, 2019
stoneware
Andile Dyalvane (b. 1978)

Great Chamber
Vase no. 7, 2006
glass and rope
Vase no. 16, 2006
glass and patinated aluminium wire
Xiangzheng, 1999
glass polished and oxidised aluminium wire
Vase no. 4, 2006
glass and rope
Lingam, 1999
Lingam, 1999
Lingam, 1999
glass
Ettore Sottsass (1917–2007), Italy

Green Satin Drawing Room
Water Filter, Stalagmite, 2012
Water Filter, Stalactite, 2012
Water Filter, Funnel, 2012
Water Filter, Funnel 2012
Water Filter, Tongue 2012
all carbonised oak, mouth-blown glass, copper
Water Filter, Spoon, 2012
carbonised oak, mouth-blown glass
Glass bottle, 2012
carbonised oak log, mouth-blown glass
FormaFantasma (founded 2009), Italy

State Drawing Room
6 x 8 chair, 2021
western red cedar
6 x 8 chair, 2021
western red cedar
Max Lamb (b. 1980) UK

State Music Room
Salvage Series Chatsworth Chair, 2021
various plastics, leather cord, plywood
Jay Sae Jung Oh (b. 1982), South Korea & USA

State Bedchamber
Black Furry Armchair (Prototype), 2022
dyed agave fibres, upholstered linen polyester blend, plywood
White Agave Cabinet, 2021
birch plywood, sisal, steel mesh, kiln-dried Canadian maple
Fernando Laposs (b.1988), Mexico

Old Master Drawings Cabinet
Design development process drawings by artists including Giulio Romano (c. 1499–1546) and William Kent (1685–1748).
Devonshire Collections

South Sketch Gallery
Enignum Brackets, 2022
ash
Joseph Walsh (b. 1979), Ireland

Sabine Room
Enignum VIII Bed, 2015
ash
Joseph Walsh (b. 1979), Ireland

North sketch
Dressing table
Writing table
David Roentgen (1743-1807), Devonshire Collections

Library
Bamboo Lamp Series, 2021
moss bamboo, waxed linen thread, pewter, spring steel, brass, borosilicate glass, components
Michael Anastassiades (b. 1967), UK

The Vestibule
Dark Vernus 1, 2021
blued steel and glass
Untitled #7, 2023
sound piece
Ini Archibong (b.1983), USA & Switzerland

Sculpture Gallery
Amnesia or platelet apparition?(edition 3 of 8), 2021
marble, powder-coated steel
Optimistic uncertainties. solicit integration (Material Articulation), Prototype, 2021
Fior di Pesca marble
Anxiety Birthed Corrosion (edition 1 of 8), 2021
marble, painted steel
Jut, impale, emerge (edition of 8), 2021
marble, powder-coated steel
Samuel Ross (b. 1991), UK

Salisbury Lawn
Chatsworth Symbio Bench, 2023
Burntwood Quarry Gritstone, Bryophytes
Joris Laarman (b. 1979), The Netherlands

Rose Garden
Seduction, Pair 06 (edition 4 of 8), 2019
Iranian red travertine
Najla El Zein (b. 1983), Iran

The Ring Pond
Illusion-Reality-Truth (edition 1 of 8), 2015
Temptation (edition 3 of 8) 2014
A New Seeing (edition 1 of 8) 2015
all bronze
Wendell Castle (1932 - 2018), USA