As World Cup frenzy builds, the Design Museum presents the first major exhibition dedicated to the design story of the world’s most popular sport. Through more than 500 objects, spanning everything from George Best’s game-worn boots to sporting films and interviews, it reveals how human creativity has pushed the game to its technical and emotional limits.
Created in collaboration with the National Football Museum in Manchester, the exhibition is divided into five sections: performance, identity, crowds, spectacle and play. As you meander around the exhibition, you’ll learn about the master-planning behind the world’s most significant football stadiums, the evolution of materials used in boots and balls as well as the cultural significance of football in countries around the world. For fans of the game, this is essential viewing.
Stroll around East London and you’ll see historic churches aplenty. Among them is the New Testament Church of God in Mile End, which is enjoying a new lease of life following its recent refurbishment. So much so, in fact, that it’s the site of a brilliant new exhibition by the New York-based artist Cj Hendry.
Hendry’s first solo show in London, Epilogue brings together 32 new monochromatic flower works inspired by depictions of nature throughout art history, from 17th century Dutch Still Life paintings to the Pop Art of Andy Warhol and Marc Quinn. Made using the Caran d’Ache Luminance 6901 pencils, these intricate studies can take up to 80 hours to produce. Also on show is a large-scale immersive installation: ten tonnes of recyclable confetti made up of millions of paper flower cut outs will continuously fall from the ceiling of the church across the 11-day duration of the show. The confetti will be allowed to settle, gradually blanketing the floors, underlining a greater sense of time, transience and rebirth.
By questioning the ephemeral nature of beauty, time, and mortality, this poignant series mirrors a collective mood of reflection and re-evaluation. ‘Countless artists have depicted flowers in full bloom, but few have portrayed them as they begin to wither and shed their petals,’ says Hendry. ‘To me this is where the beauty lies, and Epilogue is a memorial to them and a reminder that nothing lasts forever.’ Get thee to Mile End asap.
