The Information on: `Stealing Beauty' at the ICA
Your support helps us to tell the story
This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.
The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.
Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.
What Is It?
The ICA's new exhibition features the work of 16 ultra-hip - some would say painfully hip - architects and designers, all of whom are searching for `a new method and meaning' in design. Subtitled "British Design Now", the show presents a snapshot of cutting-edge aesthetics, and a chance for slowcoaches to get up to speed with the Wallpaper set. Although the organisers are careful to point out that "this is not a movement", the assembled objects do have things in common, most noticeably a willingness to use and reinterpret the detritus of modern life - supermarket trolleys, lottery tickets, flyposters, industrial and office bits and bobs - in ways that would surprise even Blue Peter viewers. As curator Claire Catterall says, this is "essentially, just a load of old tat... yet somehow it's `lifted' to become something else, something new, something beautiful".
What They Say About It
"The whole show is engaging and playful, working a kind of magic on implausible materials. The beauty comes from the reinvention of familiar, inexpensive things" Annabel Freyberg, The Independent. "The message is that, with a bit of imagination, anyone can afford the best in cutting-edge design. Time to start saving those washing-up liquid bottles?" Martin Coomer, Time Out.
Where You Can See It
ICA, The Mall, London SW1 (0171-930 3647) to 23 May.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments