Looking For A Little Reflection Time? The Latest Exhibit at Chatsworth House Has You Covered

Mirror Mirror: Reflections on Design at Chatsworth House

Chatsworth House is a compelling place to reflect on design. Over the course of 500 years, the house and its surroundings have been transformed many times over. This exploration continues in the temporary exhibition, Mirror Mirror: Reflections on Design at Chatsworth, where recent and commissioned works by 16 contemporary designers are on display. Each has responded to one of Chatsworth’s spaces and was chosen by the curators for the way that they reflect upon some of the key issues of our time: climate, sustainability, equality, and how we connect to each other.

Faye Toogood, United Kingdom
Location: The Oak Room & Chapel.

Faye’s installation of sculptural furniture for the Chapel in stone is a continuation of her latest collection Assemblage 7, in which the objects appear to be carefully excavated, as if by an archaeologist. The pieces for the Chapel are made of Purbeck Marble, a limestone from Dorset with dense deposits of snail shells. For the adjoirning Oak Room, decorated in panelling bought and installed by the 6th Duke of Devonshire in the 19th century, Faye designed a suite of objects in oak and bog oak, connecting directly with both the material of the oak room and its use as a gathering space.

Jay Sae Jung Oh, South Korea and USA
Location: State Music Room 

Seattle-based designer Jay explores the intersection of art and design with distinctive and intricately made objects. For her space, she created a new work within her long-running series of furniture made by tightly wrapping found objects with leather cord. In response to the existing collection in the room, Jay made a throne containing a number of broken musical instruments at its core, including a French horn, a snare drum and an electric guitar.

Michael Anastassiades, United Kingdom
Location: Library

Michael’s installation of light in the Library is true illumination magic. Strategically planted throughout the space, it is an indoor grove of bamboo with the stems carefully hand-finished according to a traditional Japanese method. The bases are made of poured pewter, pooled around the bamboo to form fitted stands, while illuminated bulbs are attached with waxed linen thread.

Samuel Ross, United Kingdom
Location: Sculpture Gallery

British artist, designer and multidisciplinary creative director, Samuel responded to specific sculptures that are lively-seeming but inert bodies—Filippo Albacini’s Achilles and Antonio Canova’s Endymion—with works in stone and steel. (Man after my own heart!) Their forms invite visitors to imagine the body that would recline on them. Made partly of marble, like the classical sculptures around them, partly of steel, powder-coated in bright orange, which reflects Samuel’s interest in modernism and results in a hybrid style that is vividly new.