The works of twelve progressive, independent Artist-Designers will take center stage at the multi-sensory design-art exhibition, Design New Standard. Spanning four days during the Singapore Art Week, visitors can expect to be provoked and challenged by the exhibition’s multidimensional statements on Art and Design.

Stemming from the philosophy of Artist-Designer, Bruno Munari, Design New Standard questions if labels are still necessary when in visual arts, we are seeing more and more of art that are made from a composite of different mediums, and lesser and lesser of traditional mediums such as oil on canvas or sculpture in marble or bronze. Consequently, are our present definitions on who an Artist or Designer is still based on the old-fashioned notions and outdated categories? With challenging labels at the core of this exhibition, Design New Standard aims to encourage conversations and inspire visitors to rethink the labels attached to artists, designers, multidisciplinary practitioners. It, instead, proposes for visitors to allow the works of the individual Artist-Designers to define themselves.

Co-Curator Clara Yee believes that “audiences will be surprised and reminded of the calibre and fluid nature of creative working and thinking in contemporary Asia.” She added that, “beyond the artworks, we’re really playing with the idea of what a passive gallery spectator and an active retail consumer’s role is when we put on this show.” For Co-Curator Edwin Low, he said that beyond challenging the visitors’ notion of art and design, he is also impressed by the intensity and integrity in the way by which the Artist-Designers pursue their crafts.

Design New Standard features Artist-Designers who uses different mediums as their form of expression, including botanic extracts (FORM), sand (we+), porcelain (KIHARA, SUPERMAMA), textile (Project Coal, The Rug Maker, Biro Company), scent (SIX), photography (Jotham Photography), text (Sing Lit Station) and wood(Gabriel Tan, Shibui Furniture Collective). The exhibition bridges the different mediums and weaves a coherent narrative for the visitors while at the same time, also allowing for the various forms to engage in a visual dialogue in the exhibition space.

Some of the highlights from the exhibition includes Drift – a clock that expresses nothing stays the same through the use of shadows passing across sand by Japanese design and invention studio, we+; and lifestyle brand FORM will debut its first collection, Asia Stories, by presenting four different cocktails inspired by their founders’ travelogue throughout Asia that captures the essence of different moments and places. Project Coal and artisanal fragrance label SIX will also explore and experiment with natural dyeing, textiles, art and objects as well as re-creating immersive spaces through scent that captures the traveling experience respectively. Singapore/Barcelona/New York-based designer Gabriel Tan whose furniture and design explores the boundary between craft and technology that breaks the archetypes and new forms of luxury will also be shown at the exhibition.