Coalescence

Coalescence' brings together current students and recent graduates from the AA working in the design field, presenting new and previously unseen work. Opening for Milan Design Week in the Lavanderia (or wash room) on the ground floor of the historic former military hospital, the exhibition responds to the memory of a collective space of labour and process, through the act of washing. A central table anchors the room and is made of local natural materials: reclaimed stone blocks from local quarries support a floating surface of raw ochre pigment, ground from regional sediment. 'Coalescence' marks a moment where ideas and material converge, where matter becomes object. Reminiscent of Renaissance painting and Milan’s textile histories, the pigment in the central table is held in suspension: a beam of colour awaiting water, anticipating its own dissolution. On it and dotted around the room are hand-picked works by professional designers who brilliantly blur the boundaries between material and object. The courtyard area will also host an installation from the AA’s Hooke Park campus.