All I Want for Christmas / Paul Cocksedge
Ron Arad, 'Bookworm', 1993
By TDE Editorial Team / 22nd December 2020
Paul Cocksedge
COURTESY: Paul Cocksedge / PHOTOGRAPH: Mark Cocksedge
BRITISH DESIGNER PAUL Cocksedge, Landmark Designer at 2019’s London Design Festival, is a dreamer of dreams, pushing technology, materials and processes to realise projects of wondrous simplicity. His solo show ‘Slump’ opened at Carpenters’ Workshop Gallery in London in September 2020, and his fourth solo show ‘Performance’ opens at Friedman Benda Gallery in New York in March. He is currently doing up his London apartment – so was full of ideas for objects Father Christmas could send him.
Which collectible design object would you like Father Christmas to bring you?
My instinct was to go for sculpture, however, because I am in the home decorating mode, I have my mind on new objects. One thing I have always been inspired by is Ron Arad’s ‘Bookworm’ – the original metal version.
Ron Arad, ‘Large Bookworm’ shelving system, 1993
COURTESY: Christie’s
Why?
It is a completely new way of giving books a place to rest, an ingenious solution to a problem. But it’s also beautiful to look at and joyful. I also admire the whole trajectory of this object: it began as a piece of sprung steel in Ron Arad’s hands but then it flowed into mass production, so that everyone can enjoy it. Ron was my teacher and has been a significant part of my creative journey. When I think of good design, I think of pieces like this: there is a sense of wonder. People looking at it are taken somewhere else.
What will you be sitting under on Christmas Day?
Ingo Maurer’s Birdie LED. The great German lighting designer Ingo Maurer was a good friend of Ron Arad’s and was a good friend to me. I have thought a lot about his generosity in giving me a leg up, as he did to so many. He believed in creativity, the authenticity of it. I have had a small table version of his ‘Birdie’ lamp for many years. The natural thing to do was to buy the larger, chandelier version for our flat. It gives an incredible amount of diffused light.
Ingo Maurer, ‘Birdie’, 2002
COURTESY: www.ingo-maurer.com
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