maxim velcovsky: local collection for mint gallery

‘local collection’ by maxim velcovsky for mint gallery photos by jara moravec

czech designer maxim velcovsky has created a series of vessels that is influenced by local identities. responding to the recent shut down of the czech republic’s oldest porcelain workshop, velcovsky reacted by deciding to look at local industries and how he could work with the materials available within one’s immediate neighbourhood in design. he went to the nearby ironmonger’s shop, developing a new body of works in which the material and the subsequent process in the context of place and time is what makes the designs really authentic.

the partially finished products for the manufacturing of pipes became velcovsky’s building material for his new ‘local’ collection, drawing on his fascination of parts whose morphology anticipate a function of an object. the ‘local’ collection makes use of this transformation of parts displayed in anonymous wholesale metal shops. ‘I see warehouses as boxes with LEGO bricks without the original instructions that got lost. now we can only use our imagination,’ the designer says.

the ‘local’ collection has been developed for mint gallery and is on show as part of the exhibition ‘mint explores’ during london design week 2011.

velcovsky utilizes the partially finished parts for the production of piping in his designs

various forms

inside the ironmonger’s shop

entrance to the shop