Combs, Hair Highway, Studio Swine, 2014

The upcoming V&A exhibition will present exceptional examples of contemporary design and craftsmanship alongside conceptual projects. What is Luxury? will display over 100 objects that address how luxury is made and understood. It looks at exceptional examples of contemporary design and craftsmanship alongside conceptual projects that interrogate fundamental ideas of luxury. The exhibition will open with objects that can be defined as luxurious. This will include objects that celebrate the investment of time and skill in the process of making them. Highlights would be items such as the Space Travellers’ Watch, which is an entirely handcrafted mechanical timepiece by renowned British watchmaker George Daniels.

Objects that are seemingly disparate will be juxtaposed and presented with terminology associated with the luxury brand. This will look to focus on the specific aspects of luxury and its many possible interpretations. The grouping demonstrates how a high level of expertise is refined and investigated in making exquisitely finished objects. The exhibition will also consider time and space as fundamental aspects constituting luxury. Works including Time for Yourself, a playful toolkit for misdirection which features a watch with no dial and a compass which spins to random co-ordinates, will invite visitors to contemplate the idea of getting lost and their relationship to the luxuries of space and time.

It also looks to speculate about the future of luxury by presenting a range of design and art projects. These interrogate the relationships between luxury, value and materials. Everyday objects made from gold mined in Australia are engraved with personal local histories to encode them with a new cultural value. Such items will include a headphone jack and a pendant. The exhibition will look to provoke thinking and debate through the fictional scenarios that consider issues like privacy, resources and access that could determine present and future ideas of luxury. It aims to take visitors on a journey and prompt them to consider what luxury means and how it relates to their own lives. You can find more information on the .

 

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