HETEROPHYLLY at London Design Festival
‘Off The Shelf’ Pavilion, London Design Festival
Date
September 2024
With
Company, Place
Rio Kobayashi
Webb Yates
HETEROPHYLLY was the first intervention of the ‘On the Shelf’ series, which invited artists to create installations that sat in conversation with the pavilion. The title references the ability of plants to adapt their leaf shapes depending on the environment that they are found in. The sculptures were created using redwood trunks, logs of regenerating willow, stumps of Prunus and bamboo off-cuts. Intentionally tied to blocks of limestone from the Portland quarry’s graveyard, visitors were invited to observe the slow organic transformations within an urban setting. The influence of the weather incorporated itself into the installation and contributed to its form, through washing tannins out of the redwood and staining the limestone.