Objects of Desire

The Wick Culture - Tracey Emin, Plate Design 1 Courtesy of National Portrait Gallery

Plate Design 1 by Tracey Emin

£65

Exclusive to the National Portrait Gallery is this fine bone china plate, available in two designs, featuring a portrait from Tracey Emin’s 2023 Untitled series. It comes packaged in a navy blue box, embossed in white with Emin’s signature. A small piece of Emin to take home for a very affordable price – no wonder the editions from this special collection have been selling out fast.
Originally commissioned to coincide with the National Gallery’s grand re-opening last year, and Emin’s commission The Doors, (2023), also available are a milk jug and mug. Emin said of the project: ‘Women in history are greatly underrepresented. I didn’t want to depict specific or identifiable figures. I felt like the doors of the National Portrait Gallery should represent every woman, every age and every culture throughout time.’

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The Wick Culture - “An Ode to Nude” by Caroline Mackintosh

“An Ode to Nude” by Caroline Mackintosh

55€

“Our bodies serve as the vessels through which we navigate life, communicate, breathe, and experience the world”, says South African-born Berlin-based artist Caroline Mackintosh. “Yet, in the contemporary world, we often find ourselves feeling detached from our bodies, from our true selves, and from one another.”

This is the premise for Mackintosh’ new book, “An Ode to Nude”, on sale this month via the photographer’s website and at C/O Berlin and Buchhaltung Walther König. Featuring 168 glorious photographs on 200 pages, the hardcover edition, published via Selfself Books, showcases Mackintosh’s spectacular take on bodies in landscapes, a return to nature in every sense.

Hoping to destigmatize nudity, Mackintosh’s project is a merging of stories of loved ones and strangers, all of them experiencing unique challenges within their bodies – due to illness, surgery, motherhood, ageing – but in a process of coming back to themselves with acceptance, and empowered. An enthralling and celebratory collection.

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The Wick Culture - Hurvin Anderson Cashmere Blanket for House of Voltaire, 2022 Courtesy of the artist Thomas Dane Credit Graham Pearson

Objects Cashmere Blanket by Hurvin Anderson

From £1,500

We can think of nothing better than wrapping up in this number on the sofa over the long, wet Bank Holiday weekend. Crafted from 100% superfine cashmere, the limited edition of 80 is made to order blanket features a vibrant design by acclaimed British painter Hurvin Anderson,
and is made by master craftspeople in Scotland at a small, family-run business, using traditional weaving methods. Evoking a lush, tropical natural landscape, the design and colours makes you feel like you’re outdoors – even when you’re emphatically not.

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The Wick Culture - Spray Swirl Rug, by Paul Smith for The Rug Company

Objects Spray Swirl Rug, by Paul Smith for The Rug Company

From £3,349

This funky, prismatic cut-pile rug by Paul Smith for The Rug Company will add pizzazz to any room in your home. Spray Swirl offers a fresh rendition of Paul Smith’s iconic Swirl motif that was featured in his very first collection for The Rug Company. The muted jewel hues blend to create a dizzying, spray-like effect, alluding to both graphic and street art, two visual styles Paul Smith has long revered. Sir Paul Smith was one of the first designers to collaborate with The Rug Company on a special collection, and this latest edition is as bold, confident and fun as ever. As Sir Paul Smith says, “There’s no better way of introducing a bit of bright, happy energy into a room than a good rug.”

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The Wick Culture - ISHKAR

Objects Kabul Sunset Bouquet, Louis Barthélemy for ISHKAR

From £4,500

The weather for the weekend is still erratic with more rain on the way, and we personally feel the need for something warm and cosy underfoot. This week we are dreaming of artist-designed functional textiles for the home, such as this sumptuous pink-hued hand-knotted carpet belonging to a new capsule collection created by Louis Barthélemy for ISHKAR. Evoking the warm colours of a sunset, the carpet is inspired by 14th century gardens, such as the Babur gardens in Kabul, with their lush vegetation, ponds and pavilions. Each carpet features a design by the French multidisciplinary artist, that was then realised by carpet weavers in northern Afghanistan – they take between 4 to 6 months to produce – so order now in time for autumn.

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The Wick Culture - Mamma Carafe, La DoubleJ

Objects Mamma Carafe, La DoubleJ

€690

This stunning hand-blown Murano glass carafe from Milanese label La DoubleJ makes our hearts sing. A standout among the new additions to La DoubleJ’s popular Rigadin homeware collection, the vessel combines practicality, craftsmanship and style. Crafted by artisans at the Salviati in Venice – famed for their avant-garde approach to the age-old tradition of glass blowing – the striped, ridged effect is the result of the molten glass being rotated on a bronzing mould. Sure to take centre stage on any table – just add flowers, or your cold beverage of choice.

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The Wick Culture - Bell Portable Fluoro LED lamp, Tom Dixon

Objects Bell Portable Fluoro LED lamp, Tom Dixon

€264

British luxury design brand Tom Dixon are known and loved for their metallics and monochromes – so for Spring Summer 2024, they decided to introduce an element of surprise and inject some colour into their collection. Debuting at Milan Design Week, the Bell portable light in fluoro has a high-gloss finish, achieved by a powder coated surface. A concealed diffuser results in super soft lighting. It also comes with a pair of gloves – to keep that fingerprint free perfection. A simple yet bold statement that will punctuate any space with panache.

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The Wick Culture - Objects My Dear Mountains Bag by Gaetano Pesce, Bottega Veneta

Objects My Dear Mountains Bag by Gaetano Pesce, Bottega Veneta

From 10,000 USD

This week at The Wick Culture, we are looking at the best of Milan Design week (15 to 21 April). Among the most hotly anticipated launches was a limited edition handbag collaboration between the pioneering Italian architect and designer Gaetano Pesce and Bottega Veneta. Pesce created two designs for the Milan-based luxury fashion house, and presented them in a ‘grotto’ installation crafted from resin and textiles. This bag ‘My Dear Mountains’ (an edition of fifteen) evokes Pesce’s watercolour paintings, an effect that was created by applying airbrush to the glossy, Intrecciato bag. The bag is inspired by the mountains near Este, northern Italy, where the 83-year-old Pesce grew up. “It’s an image that is optimistic when we have a reality that is not optimistic at all,” Pesce said.

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The Wick Culture - Objects LØCI trainers

Objects LØCI trainers

From £135

This week at The Wick Culture we are obsessing over what to pack for Venice. Our founder Katy Wickremesinghe has selected the essential items she will be packing for a busy week of events, and top of the list are a pair of LØCI vegan trainers, timeless Minimalist designs that go with everything and are sourced and created ethically in Europe. A perennial must for all that cobblestone walking, disembarking vaporettos – and chic enough for cicchetti and spritz.

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