Material Matters with Grant Gibson Grant Gibson

Tom Lloyd and Luke Pearson co-founded the hugely influential design studio, Pearson Lloyd, in 1997. Since then, it has gone on to work in areas such as the workplace, transport and health care, with organisations like Virgin, Lufthansa, the Department for Health, and furniture giant Senator. 
The practice is the Designer of the Year at the Material Matters 2023 fair and will be using the space at Bargehouse to investigate how its use of materials has been transformed over recent years, including projects with clients such as Modus, Batch.Works, Howe, Flokk, Profim and Camira. 
In this episode we talk about: controversially criticising Arne Jacobsen’s classic Egg chair; their installation at Material Matters 2023; marrying craft and industry; how their material perspective has changed; balancing environmental, social and economic needs; why they’re still using plastic; building out obsolescence; the aesthetics of circularity; bringing contemporary workplace theory to schools; the importance of visible fixings, durability and repair; working with the aviation industry; the problem with paint; meeting at the Royal College of Art; being drawn into the furniture industry; celebrating their differences; and fearing boredom. 
Our thanks go to the headline sponsor for this series of the podcast – and the Material Matters 2023 fair – the brilliant lighting specialist, Bert Frank. For more details go to: bertfrank.co.uk 
And to register for the Material Matters fair, which runs from 20-23 September at Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf go to: 
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/material-matters-2023-tickets-591491014547
PS apologies for my slightly ham-fisted Monty Python analogy…
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Marie Carlisle is CEO and co-founder of social enterprise (and Material Matters exhibitor), Goldfinger. The organisation opened its doors at the foot of West London’s Trellick Tower in 2013 and makes high end furniture from wood – that has often been reclaimed or ‘treecycled’ – in its workshop. Not only that but it has a showroom and cafe, as well as an academy that teaches marginalised young people the craft of wood working through its apprenticeship programme. 
It is a fascinating and, I think, important place.
In this episode we talk about: how Trellick Tower shaped the business; making waste aspirational; bridging North Kensington’s social divide; why Goldfinger works with wood; the relationship between wood and wellbeing; the importance of ‘treecycling’; collaborating with the likes of Arup and Tom Dixon; her fascination with food and setting up the cafe; the once a month community meal; how the pandemic changed the People’s Kitchen model; working with young people in the academy; how the social enterprise has changed over the past decade; Goldfinger’s future. 
Our thanks go to the headline sponsor for this series of the podcast – and the Material Matters 2023 fair – the brilliant lighting specialist, Bert Frank. For more details go to: bertfrank.co.uk 
And to register for the Material Matters fair, which runs from 20-23 September at Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf go to: 
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/material-matters-2023-tickets-591491014547
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My guest for the 100th episode of Material Matters is a British designer who sits somewhere between industry and craft. Michael Marriott has a fascination with materials – so much so that his web shop is called Wood Metal Plastic – and a love of resourceful design. Over the years he’s created furniture for the likes of Established & Sons, SCP, and Very Good and Proper, as well as designing and curating exhibitions, working on interiors, and teaching. However, he seems happiest in his own workshop, working on batch production pieces. It’s safe to say he’s a pivotal figure in the recent history of British design. 
In this episode we discuss: standing on the edge of regular design practice; but not being a craftsman; how tools change design and the importance of a jig; creating cost-effective products; why ‘resourceful’ could be his middle name; the problem with design as an extension of marketing; his love of wood; not working with big Italian furniture brands; readymades and waste; how a trip to Ford’s Dagenham factory changed his life; struggling at school; and his discovery of modernism. 
It’s a delightful way to mark our centenary. 
Our thanks go to the headline sponsor for this series of the podcast – and the Material Matters 2023 fair – the brilliant lighting specialist, Bert Frank. For more details go to: bertfrank.co.uk 
And to register for the Material Matters fair, which runs from 20-23 September at Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf go to: 
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/material-matters-2023-tickets-591491014547
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Alice Kettle is one of the country’s leading textile artists. She uses embroidery to tell stories and throw the spotlight on contemporary issues – most noticeably the refugee crisis in her series Thread Bearing Witness. 
Currently, she has a solo installation at two sites in The City of London as part of her prize for winning The Brookfield Properties Craft Award. While an exhibition she co-curated, Threads: Breathing Stories into Materials, opened at Bristol’s Arnolfini in July. She is also professor of textile arts at Manchester School of Art.
In this episode we discuss: creativity as a humanising force; how the refugee crisis affected her practice; why making is empowering; the importance of scale; the special meaning of the number three; being influenced by Greek mythology; growing up in a boys’ boarding school; her interest in stitching after the tragic death of her mother; her move from abstract painting to thread; and taking risks with her pieces. 
Our thanks go to the headline sponsor for this series of the podcast – and the Material Matters 2023 fair – the brilliant lighting specialist, Bert Frank. For more details go to: bertfrank.co.uk 
And to register for the Material Matters fair, which runs from 20-23 September at Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf go to: 
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/material-matters-2023-tickets-591491014547
Support the show

Beatie Wolfe is a musician and artist, who has in her time been described as a ‘musical weirdo and visionary’ and one of the ‘22 people changing the world’. 
In a relatively short career she has: created a 3D interactive album app and a musical jacket; worked in the world’s quietest room to develop an ‘anti-stream’; fired her music into space; made a documentary with the Barbican; designed an environmental protest piece, entitled From Green to Red, which was shown at the Nobel Prize Summit; worked with people suffering from dementia; and recorded a track for a 12 inch record made of bioplastic, alongside Michael Stipe. 
Her latest project, Imprinting: The Artist’s Brain, was on show as part of the recent London Design Biennale at Somerset House, and is a 'sonic self-portrait' that involves old-school telephones as well as a thinking cap designed by an iconic tailor. 
The theme running through all this is her desire to 're-materialise' music and give it back a sense of ‘tangibility and ceremony’. 
In this episode we discuss: keeping space rock in her pocket; her latest project at the London Design Biennale; being self-critical as a child; writing her first songs aged nine; working with renowned tailor Mr Fish; the importance of collaboration; sending her music into space; finding the balance between innovation and tradition; her childhood desire to be a ninja; being in a grunge band; the power of art; and the importance of neurologist Oliver Sacks to her career. 
Our thanks go to the headline sponsor for this series of the podcast – and the Material Matters 2023 fair – the brilliant lighting specialist, Bert Frank. For more details go to: bertfrank.co.uk
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Ndidi Ekubia creates extraordinary, almost liquid-looking, vessels from silver. She graduated from the University of Wolverhampton in 1995, before going on to the Royal College of Art. Since then, her work has been shown internationally at exhibitions such as TEFAF in Maastricht, Masterpiece in London, and Pavilion of Art & Design in New York.
Her pieces are held in Winchester Cathedral, Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museum and The Asmolean Museum in Oxford. 
Currently, she has a series of vessels in Mirror Mirror, a new exhibition at Chatsworth House that also contains furniture, lighting, ceramics, and sculpture from designers such as Fernando Laposse, Samuel Ross, Faye Toogood, and Ettore Sottsass. 
Ndidi was awarded an MBE in 2017 for services to silversmithing. 
In this episode we talk about: why she loves silver; the rhythm that lies behind her process; listening to the metal and trying not to ‘torture’ her material; silver’s memory; the importance of function; the African influence in her pieces; wanting to leave Manchester as a child but returning as an adult; her early love of Lowry; discovering metal as a student; having her work reassessed in the wake of Black Lives Matter; and her relationship with her gallery, Adrian Sassoon.

We are delighted that the headline sponsor for this series of the podcast – and the Material Matters fair – is the brilliant lighting specialist, Bert Frank.

For more details go to: bertfrank.co.uk
Support the show