Generations, the entrance foyer designed by Shalini Misra Ltd, will examine the aesthetics of interior design through the life of a fictional family across hundreds of years
Using a several 100-year-old room as its canvas, Generations, the entrance foyer of WOW!House by Shalini Misra Ltd, will examine our constantly evolving relationship with the aesthetics of interior design as it ebbs and flows through time.
The room will offer insight into the styles of the various fictional inhabitants who have occupied it over the course of its lifetime while considering how interior design can marry the traditional and the contemporary to create a meaningful, welcoming space that honours and elevates period features. Shalini Misra’s concept is intended to create a dialogue between the antique and the modern, bringing traditional craftsmanship together with innovation to explore how each can elevate a visitor’s experience of the other.
Shining a light on themes at the heart of today’s generation, the space will feature Transmutation 1, a chandelier by French master craftsman Thierry Jeannot created from thousands of carefully selected, precisely cut pieces of waste P.E.T plastic bottles that, at first glance, appear to be crystal. This exquisite central piece will encourage visitors to revaluate their preconceptions of material value, purpose and waste.
Further exploring the contemporary, Interpolating AI Petals, an NFT artwork by conceptual artist and pioneer of crypto art Sarah Meyohas, will also be displayed in Shalini Misra’s entrance foyer. The work is a result of Meyohas’ performance, Cloud of Petals, at the former Bel Labs complex in New Jersey, which saw sixteen workers photograph 100,000 individual rose petals, compiling a digital database of their findings. Using the information gathered, the artist developed an artificial intelligence algorithm that generated new, unique petals.
Championing the best in handcraftsmanship, Generations will feature the Ava Dining Table by British furniture designer Tom Faulkner sitting centrally. The distinctive sculptural table features a surface that appears to float above two intriguingly linked tetrahedrons. The table will sit atop Big Bliss Undyed, the Memphis movement inspired rug by Mae Engelgeer for CC Tapis. To the side, exquisite materials continue with the Wave Console by Staffan Tollgård for The Refined Workshop. Elegant in form and impeccably carved from one of the most prized natural stones in the world, the Wave Console’s sculptural underside highlights the importance of every surface within a design – a sentiment shared by Shalini Misra’s own practice. Ceramic sculptor Abigail Ozora Simpson’s large scale clay pieces continue the celebration of material and form – Salmon Pink Column is over 180cm tall and hand coiled in a pink stoneware clay. It sits next to ‘White Sculpture’ also from clay at 140cm tall.
Bringing the history of this fictional several 100-year-old room to the fore, Shalini Misra Ltd has worked with period architectural joinery firm Atkey and Co to provide skirting, mouldings and architraves and with Jamb to present a carved Bath stone fireplace in the early George III manner. Above the fireplace will be a mirror by world celebrated Studio Peascod, made in Gloucestershire from sumptuous surfaces using atmospheric textures and materials. Adjacent, the Art Deco inspired Faro wall sconces and the romantic Clair de Lune pendant by the sofa by one of the world’s most exclusive decorative lighting companies, Bella Figura, will illuminate the space.
Seating in Shalini Misra’s entrance foyer will bring one generation together with another. An eye-catching 120-year-old vintage No.10 Bentwood cane rocking chair in black lacquer by Thonet, supplied by Sigmar London, will sit alongside a modernist design sofa and side table by New Delhi and New York firm DeMuro Das.
British wood flooring company Havwoods’ Pureplank Oak Lattes Herringbone timber flooring is featured throughout the space while the walls are covered in Chinon by Fromental in the Henson colourway. The Chinon design depicts a European style rendering of an Asian garden scene, hand-painted using a relief process to mimic raised lacquer work. Dedar Milano has provided jacquard curtains for Generations, which are inspired by traditional Japanese “Obi” belts and masterfully depict wandering clouds. A richly layered and textural space, Generations will offer a warm welcome as visitors begin their journey through WOW!House, realised through the exquisite attention to detail and curatorial eye that the practice is known for.
