The AA and Alcova present: Coalescence

Coalescence is an exhibition bringing together AA designers 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 – conceived and developed by Christopher Pierce, the Head of the AA Visiting School, and curated by architect and AA tutor Nichola Barrington-Leach – responds to the memory of a collective space of labour and process, through the act of washing.

A central table designed by Nichola Barrington-Leach 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. Presented on the table and around the room are 30 objects made using a range of materials and techniques, spanning craft to hyper-technology, from casting, ceramics, metalwork and carpentry, to paper crafts, stone masonry and innovative 3D printing.

Curator Nichola Barrington-Leach: '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.'