Mirror Mirror: State closet

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