Objects with Narratives stages "found" design at PAD London

By Daniel Okafor

Brussels gallery Objects with Narratives has opened its second exhibition at PAD London, the annual collectible design fair in Mayfair's Berkeley Square. The show, titled What Remains?, runs until 18 October and features work by Ben Storms, Paul Cocksedge, Sofie Middernacht and Jojo Corväiá.

The gallery's pitch is texture, and plenty of it. The pieces share amorphous shapes and patinated surfaces, united by one idea: age. "Every piece was crafted in the present, yet many carry a sense of the past, as though found rather than fabricated," said Objects with Narratives.

That's a neat trick for furniture made last week.

What's on show?

Belgian designer Ben Storms presents Ex Hale, a cushion-like coffee table carved from veiny red Mexican onyx and decorated with mosaic veneer. Storms is known for rough-hewn furniture that resembles jumbo pillows; this is his most recent design in that lineage.

The making of it was anything but soft. Storms used hydroforming (blowing metal sheets into shape with water pressure) to inflate two welded pieces of metal sheet, which were then 3D-scanned to capture the cushion form. A CNC machine milled the same shape from a block of stone.

"Ex Hale plays with our common notions of materiality," said the gallery. "The hard stone looks soft instead, an impression that is further enhanced by the delicate surface treatment."

British designer Paul Cocksedge shows Critical Mass, a handmade Corten steel standing shelf. Three metal components support three shelves — a construction that echoes What Nelson Sees, his weathering steel installation placed in Trafalgar Square for last year's London Design Festival.

"The Critical Mass series holds an energy, something on the edge of collapse or explosion," said Objects with Narratives.

The rest of the roster:

• Sofie Middernacht, Belgian designer, showing a steel credenza, bench and duo of stools clad in gleaming crimson resin — she works with discarded industrial materials, forming furniture like archaeological artefacts.
• Jojo Corväiá, Venezuelan artist, presenting a trio of glazed vessels crafted from volcanic clay, a material central to his practice.
• KRJST Studio, Belgian practice, with shaggy mohair and wool lamps.
• Karl Monies, Danish designer, with lighting formed from patchwork slabs of copper.

Why the title?

The gallery frames the question as the exhibition's thesis. "What Remains? asks what gives an object the sense that it might outlive the moment of its making: the material, the craft, or simply the possibility that some objects belong to no single time at all," Objects with Narratives concluded.

The founders — Nik and Robbe Vandewyngaerde and Oskar Eryatmaz — opened their first permanent brick-and-mortar gallery inside a historic 1920s fur atelier in Brussels in 2023. PAD London 2026 runs from 14 to 19 October. Collectors hunting stone that pretends to be upholstery have four days left.