Milan's Alcova 2023 event brings together designers, artists, and creatives from around the world to showcase their innovative works. This year's event features a collaboration between Agglomerati and Tom Fereday, two artists who share a passion for exploring the possibilities of natural materials.
Agglomerati, founded by Australian designer Sam Henley, brings together a diverse network of creatives with Italy's finest craftspeople to create functional art-objects in stone. Agglomerati's partnership with Tom Fereday, who is fascinated by the tension between natural materials and contemporary design, results in a series of towering, illuminated sculptures called Cor.
Named after the Latin word for "heart," Cor alludes to the idea of Earth as a living organism. Each sculpture in the collection comprises six monolithic totems, formed around a piercing, spherical aperture that binds the collection. The negative space opens differently in each iteration, adding to the vessels' enigmatic presence, which glows radiantly when lit.
Crafted from Roman travertine sourced from Tivoli and produced in the renowned Italian marble region of Pietrasanta, each piece in this limited-edition series showcases intricate and innovative internal coring. This process demonstrates a synthesis of material innovation and natural stone machining on an impressive scale, revealing the pitted and permeable formations of the stone's structure through a unique angled cut aligning the patination of the stone. This cut serves as a testament to the stone's millions of years resonating within Earth's core.
Tom Fereday's work celebrates the materials and manufacture behind furniture and objects, guiding considered and thoughtful design outcomes that explore the notion of quiet innovation. Through his collaboration with Agglomerati, Fereday explores the possibilities of stone as a medium for functional art-objects that exude gravity and speak to the fundamental nature of the material.
Alcova 2023 provides a platform for artists like Agglomerati and Tom Fereday to showcase their works, which blend art and design to create innovative, functional pieces. Their collaboration on Cor is an excellent example of the possibilities that arise when creative minds work together to push the boundaries of what is possible with natural materials.