SEEDS is pleased to present Masters of Disguise as part of the Brompton Design District 2019, an exhibition that seeks to interpret this year’s theme Nature/Nurture by looking at the notion of human nature. In the current age of the Anthropocene, designers need to reflect not only on their work, but also at their own identity as creative professionals. Who we are and how we choose to represent ourselves to the world, is deeply rooted in how we interpret the relationship to the environment. This is the essence of human nature.
Masters of Disguise will explore this concept by exhibiting the work of key contemporary artists/designers together with their interpretation of their individual identity – their ‘human nature’ – in the form of a mask. Questions of identity, performance and display are at the core of this exhibition. In the current era of hyper-visibility and obsession with image culture, a mask is a powerful metaphor for the changes of identity that we perform in our everyday interactions across different media and realities.
During the exhibition, a performative dinner will be hosted at the space where artists will be playing with their masks in a social gathering where the expression of hiding/revealing an identity will be presented to the hosts.
The exhibition setting will be specifically created for the occasion with an emphasis on informality and domesticity. Artists/designers will also be contributing to the exhibition with a number of objects that will be used during the performative opening event (including furniture, lights, tableware, cutlery, glasses, vases etc).
Curated by M–L–XL
M–L–XL is a design studio that works across different disciplines, including furniture design, installations, type design and publishing. The studio, with offices in Venice and London, was founded by Marco Campardo and Lorenzo Mason, and focuses on research, experimenting with languages, techniques and materials.