Objects of Desire

The Wick Culture - Backgammon board by Alexandra Llewellyn

Objects The Chase: Summer Table Top Backgammon, by Alexandra Llewellyn

£3,900

British artist Alexandra Llewellyn has been turning play into an art form since 2010, crafting beautiful backgammon boards, poker sets and custom board games that tell a story. One of her latest, The Chase: Summer Table Top Backgammon, adds a streak of tension to the game. A swimmer is chased by a shark across the printed leather board, which is encased in sustainable walnut wood. It comes with Burgundy calf leather dice shakers and a transparent resin doubling cube with a burst of blue pigment suspended inside to up the ante. The lid becomes a drinks tray when the action finishes, so you can toast your success.

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The Wick Culture - Chess set by Kirico Ueda

Objects Chess set by Kirico Ueda

£2,958

The London-based Japanese artist Kirico Ueda brings her love of folklore, mythology and theatre to the table with this chess set, featuring an unusual cast of pieces handsculpted in earthenware. Produced in an edition of just three, the set includes a hand-crafted board by woodworker Ellen Svenningsen and painted by Ueda. It brings a dose of fantasy to a game of chess.

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The Wick Culture - A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf

Objects A Room of One’s Own, by Virginia Woolf 

In A Room of One’s Own, first published in 1929, Virginia Woolf took aim at the literary establishment of the time, which upheld the notion that women were inherently lesser writers due to their gender. She exposed the biases and systemic issues that stymied women’s creativity and argued that for them to achieve their full creative potential, they needed financial independence and a metaphorical “room of their own”.

This seminal piece of female literary critique has inspired generations of writers and remains just as enthralling nearly 100 years on – the perfect bedtime reading during Women’s History Month, whatever your gender.

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The Wick Culture - Your body, cast by Studio Bust

Objects Your body, cast by Studio Bust

Starting from £450

On International Women’s Day, why not celebrate your own body in all its curvy glory? Head to Studio Bust in London or Hampshire, which will scan you in 3D and digitally print your bust before casting and hand finishing it in bronze or natural plastic, in an array of different tones. Display it proudly on your shelf and marvel at your own, unique beauty.

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The Wick Culture - THE GUERRILLA GIRLS | Dearest Art Collector, 1986

Objects “Dearest Art Collector” handkerchief by the Guerilla Girls

£22

On International Women’s Day, here’s a handkerchief to call out those who don’t give female artists the spotlight they deserve. “Dearest Art Collector” is one of a series of posters by the group of anonymous American female artists who call themselves the Guerrilla Girls. Produced in the 1980s, the works targeted museums, dealers, curators, critics and artists who they felt were actively responsible for, or complicit in, the exclusion of women and non-white artists from mainstream exhibitions and publications.

Handwritten in a cute, girly style in the form of a letter on pink paper, headed by a flower with a sad face, the text states their confidence that the collector will rectify the error of their ways and collect more works by female artists. Originally made in 1986, the letter has now been embroidered on a handkerchief to dangle from your pocket. Though progress has been made in the art world since the 1980s, sadly its message still resonates today.

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The Wick Culture - Women Intertwined 01 by Laxmi Hussain

Object Women Intertwined 01 lamp by Laxmi Hussain

London-based artist Laxmi Hussain explores the journey of motherhood in works on paper and on a series of upcycled lamps, which she uses as canvases to explore her own experiences. She sources the lamps on eBay and other marketplaces, rewires them, then paints tangles of female bodies on the shades in cobalt blue. “These women are gathered, free in their bodies, enjoying a moment,” she says. It’s a sentiment that feels liberating this Mother’s Day.

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The Wick Culture - Big Girl Chair by Lara Bohinc, Pink Wool, Organic Shape, Armchair

Object Big Girl Chair, by Lara Bohinc

Furniture designer – and former Monday Muse – Lara Bohinc’s chair collection celebrates the curves of the female body in all their fleshy detail. Composed of a wooden structure and voluptuous foam layers upholstered in soft wool, the Big Girl Chair gives the sitter a giant embrace – making it the perfect, indulgent gift for Mother’s Day.

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The Wick Culture - Clementine Keith Roach New Mourning (1), 2022

Object New Mourning (I), by Clementine Keith Roach

Motherhood has long been a central theme for the artist Clementine Keith Roach, who began making plaster casts of her own body while pregnant with her first child. Intrigued by her rapidly changing breasts, she began moulding casts of them onto large terracotta vessels sourced from Europe. On our Mother’s Day wish list is her sculpture “New Mourning (I),” 2022, featuring casts of her breasts the day after she stopped breastfeeding. Made from jesmonite, wood and steel, the figures hold up a vessel of what appears to be milk.

“The sculpture marks the separation of mother and child during weaning as both a time of grief and a new beginning,” says the Dorset-based artist. It evokes the dualities of motherhood and all the rich emotional experiences it entails.

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The Wick Culture - The Rose Pendant - Gold - Blue

Object The Rose Pendant by Bleue Burnham

£1,500

Men’s jewellery is a burgeoning business. As new lines are launched and the options become ever wider, The Wick brings you some of its favourites, including The Rose Pendant from Bleue Burnham, a man ahead of the game. The London designer founded his eponymous fine jewellery line in 2018. After being taught the basics of wax modelling, he became hooked, first making pieces for himself, then for friends, then their friends, and so on. Mixing a sense of British modernity with a playful spirit, his necklaces, rings and bracelets are handmade in London from recycled precious metals. This pendant (a unisex design) captures the rose’s fluid beauty, with its baguette-cut Sapphire presented in a free-formed setting.

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