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Order an Object at the New V&A East Storehouse to Get Up-Close to 5,000 Years of Cultural Heritage
by Aurelia Butler 3 June 2025, 19:24
The Weston Collections Hall at V&A East
Storehouse, including over 100 mini
curated displays in the ends and sides of the storage racking. The
space is anchored by six large-scale objects, including a building section from the now-demolished Robin Hood
Gardens, a former residential estate in
Poplar, east London. Photo by Hufton +
Crow for V&A. All images courtesy of V&A, shared with permission
Order an Object at the New V&A East Storehouse to Get Up-Close to 5,000 Years of Cultural Heritage
June 3, 2025
ArtDesignHistory
Kate Mothes
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What do the largest Picasso painting in the world, punky Vivienne Westwood apparel, pins for securing a 17th-century ruff, and a complete Frank Lloyd Wright interior have in common? That’ll be the U.K.’s Victoria and Albert Museum, or the V&A, the world’s largest collection of design and applied and decorative arts.
In South Kensington, the palatial museum has awed visitors since 1852, and in recent decades, the institution has greatly expanded, with locations like the Young V&A in Bethnal Green, the Wedgwood Collection in Stoke-on-Trent, the ship-like V&A Dundee in Scotland, and the brand new V&A East Storehouse in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
The largest Picasso work in the world, the 1924 front stage cloth for the Ballets Russes’ production, ‘Le Train Bleu,’ at V&A East Storehouse. Photo by David Parry/PA Media Assignments. Pablo Picasso, “Le Train Bleu front stage cloth” (1924) © The estate of Pablo Picasso
Spanning 5,000 years of human creativity through hundreds of thousands of objects requires a lot of space. Rather than hiding it all away in a dark warehouse, the new Storehouse takes over a portion of the former 2012 London Olympics Media Centre, providing a purpose-built home for more than 250,000 objects, 350,000 library books, and 1,000 archives from across the V&A’s diverse collections.
The best part? You can visit! Storehouse hosts workshops, screenings, performances, and pop-up displays of special collections, along with the opportunity to observe conservators at work preserving a wide range of cultural heritage objects.
Peruse more than 100 curated mini-displays throughout the building, and book in advance to get up-close and personal through the Order an Object experience. Pick any object in storage, and a member of the Collections Access team will assist you in interacting safely with everything from artworks to textiles to musical instruments.
Plan your visit on the V&A website.
The 17th-century Agra Colonnade, an extraordinary example of Mughal architecture from the bathhouse at the fort of Agra, visible through the Weston Collections Hall glass floor, and accessible via Object Encounters at V&A East Storehouse. Photo by Hufton + Crow for V&A
View of Weston Collections Hall, which features more than 100 mini curated displays, at V&A East Storehouse. Photo by Kemka Ajoku for V&A
Welcome area at V&A East Storehouse with pull-out framed textiles to explore. Photo by Kemka Ajoku for V&A
Mesh roll-out storage racking at V&A East Storehouse. Available via Object Encounters visits. Photo by Hufton + Crow for V&A
Multi-purpose conservation studio, visible from the Conservation Overlook at V&A East Storehouse. Photo by David Parry/PA Media Assignments
View of the Weston Collections Hall at V&A East Storehouse. Photo by David Parry/PA Media Assignments
Order an Object appointment at V&A East Storehouse. Photo by Bet Bettencourt forV&A Object pictured is Althea McNish, “Rubra” (1961), furnishing fabric
View of a section of Robin Hood Gardens, a former residential estate in Poplar, east London, at V&A East Storehouse. Photo by David Parry/PA Media Assignments
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Dr. Ella Hawkins Reimagines Ancient Artifacts and Prized Objects as Edible Replicas
by Aurelia Butler 31 May 2025, 18:28
William Morris Biscuit Set. All images courtesy of Ella Hawkins, shared with permission
Dr. Ella Hawkins Reimagines Ancient Artifacts and Prized Objects as Edible Replicas
May 31, 2025
ArtDesignFoodIllustration
Grace Ebert
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Academic research is notoriously niche and often opaque, but Dr. Ella Hawkins has found a crowd-pleasing way to share her studies. The Birmingham-based artist and design historian translates her interests in Shakespeare performance, costume, and matieral culture into edible replicas.
Hawkins bakes batches of cookies that she tops with royal icing. Decorating takes a scholarly turn, as she uses tiny paintbrushes and a mini projector to help trace imagery of William Morris’ ornate floral motifs or coastal scenes from English delftware. Rendering a design on a single cookie can take anywhere between two and four hours, depending on the complexity. Unsurprisingly, minuscule calligraphy and portraits are most demanding.
Ancient Greek Pottery Sherds
Hawkins first merged baking and her research about a decade ago while studying undergraduate costume design at the University of Warwick. She decided to bake cupcakes based on Shakespeare productions that her class examined. “It felt like a fun way to look back at all the different design styles we’d covered through the year,” she tells Colossal, adding:
I carried on decorating cakes and cookies based on costume design through my PhD (mainly as goodies to give out during talks, or as gifts for designers that I interviewed), then branched out and spent lots of time doing cookie versions of other artefacts to keep busy during the pandemic.
She has since published an academic book on the topic and is a senior lecturer at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. But she also continues to translate artifacts and prized objects held within museum collections into delicious canvases.
There’s a set made in collaboration with Milton’s Cottage, a museum in the country house where John Milton finished his epic Paradise Lost. Anchored by a delicately crosshatched portrait evoking that of the frontispiece, the collection contains typographic titles and signs that appear straight from a 17th-century book.
Delftware Tiles
Hawkins ventures farther back in history to ancient Greece with a collection of pottery sherds inspired by objects within the Ashmolean Museum. With a bowed surface to mimic a vessel’s curvature, the irregular shapes feature fragments of various motifs and figures to which she applied a sgraffito technique, a Renaissance method of scratching a surface to reveal the layer below.
The weathered appearance is the result of blotting a base of pale brown-grey before using a scribe tool to scratch and crack the royal icing coating the surface. She then lined these etchings with a mix of vodka and black food coloring to mimic dirt and wear. (It’s worth taking a look at this process video.)
Other than a select few preserved for talks and events, Hawkins assures us that the rest of her cookies are eaten. Find more of her work on her website and Instagram.
Medieval Tiles, inspired by The Tristram Tiles, Chertsey, Surrey, England (c. 1260s-70s)
Milton’s Cottage Biscuit Set developed in collaboration with Milton’s Cottage
Outlander Biscuit Set
Elizabethan Gauntlet Biscuit Set
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In ‘Of the Oak,’ a Magnificent Tree at Kew Gardens Gets an Immersive ‘Digital Double’
by Aurelia Butler 30 May 2025, 14:30
All images courtesy of Marshmallow Laser Feast, courtesy of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, shared with permission
In ‘Of the Oak,’ a Magnificent Tree at Kew Gardens Gets an Immersive ‘Digital Double’
May 30, 2025
ArtDesignNatureScience
Kate Mothes
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“We believe in the power of stories to tickle senses and shift perceptions,” says Marshmallow Laser Feast, an experiential artist collective merging art, extended reality (XR), and film into large-scale, immersive exhibitions.
MLF’s latest work, Of the Oak, situates a monumental, six-meter-tall, double-sided video of the titular tree in London’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The piece focuses on the garden’s Lucombe oak, portraying a “digital double” using real-world data.
Photo by Barney Steel
MLF collaborated with researchers from Kew to create a vibrant, scientific rendering, blending advanced technologies with artistic imagery. The team stitched together thousands of images, used LiDAR to map the tree’s form with laser pulses, CT-scanned soil samples, employed ground-penetrating radar to trace the root system, and recorded a series of 24-hour soundtracks.
“Of the Oak is a celebration for the oak tree as a living monument of vital ecological relationships and species interdependence,” MLF says. “It is an invitation to witness the oak as a keystone in the web of life, majestic and unassuming, stretching its branches skyward and its roots deep into the soil, embodying both quiet strength and boundless generosity.”
Visitors can access a stunning digital field guide on their phones or via desktop from anywhere, featuring a series of meditations that “tune into the invisible bond between humans and trees.” The app also includes an interactive species guide highlighting the diverse range of birds, insects, fungi, and other inhabitants that rely on oak trees for survival.
Of the Oak continues at Kew through September 28. Marshmallow Laser Feast is also currently presenting an immersive, seven-room exhibition titled YOU:MATTER at the National Science and Media Museum as part of Bradford 2025 U.K. City of Culture. See more projects on the collective’s website.
Photo by Sandra Ciampon
Photo by Barney Steel
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Firebelly x Good Chaos: How an Ongoing Partnership Influenced a Joyful Identity
by Aurelia Butler 29 May 2025, 16:04
Firebelly x Good Chaos: How an Ongoing Partnership Influenced a Joyful Identity
May 29, 2025
ArtDesignPartner
Firebelly
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Liz’s work instantly dazzled and lit up my design brain… My eyes followed the edges bouncing from color to color. The longer you looked, the more you were rewarded.Will Miller, Senior Director of Design at Firebelly
Around the same time as Firebelly’s partnership with Colossal, the Chicago design studio was also developing a brand identity for Good Chaos, an impact organization committed to creating opportunities for artists. As part of its initial launch, Good Chaos was seeking a trio of local artists to design distinct logos for the organization and create interactive and joy-filled digital experiences on the Good Chaos website.
In his research, Firebelly’s Senior Director of Design Will Miller came across Liz Flores’s work on Colossal and felt she fit the criteria perfectly for Good Chaos’ launch initiative. She was added to the artist shortlist and was ultimately selected by the Good Chaos team to participate. Read more about how her work came to goodchaos.com on Firebelly.
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A Rippling Townhouse Facade by Alex Chinneck Takes a Seat in a London Square
by Aurelia Butler 22 May 2025, 19:06
Photos by Charles Emerson. All images courtesy of Alex Chinneck Studio, shared with permission
A Rippling Townhouse Facade by Alex Chinneck Takes a Seat in a London Square
May 22, 2025
ArtDesign
Kate Mothes
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It takes a real knack for design to make something as hefty and industrial as steel and bricks appear weightless or even playful. But British artist Alex Chinneck (previously) is no stranger to monumental projects that reimagine urban infrastructure and buildings into striking public installations.
As part of London’s Clerkenwell Design Week, Chinneck unveiled “A week at the knees,” a new sculpture in Charterhouse Square that takes its cue from an iconic predecessor. The artist installed the “From the Knees of my Nose to the Belly of my Toes” in 2013 on a dilapidated townhouse in Margate, appearing as though the entire front of the building had simply slid right off. On view through June in London, his new work boasts a frame made from 320 meters of repurposed steel and 7,000 bricks.
“A week at the knees” playfully anthropomorphizes a classic Georgian facade, with its lower two levels rippling over a pathway as if seated in the park with its knees up. London is famous for its green squares and gardens, and Chinneck’s work invites visitors to pass through a unique portal that calls upon the history of its surroundings, complete with downspout and lamps flanking the arched front door.
Chinneck fabricated the sculpture in collaboration with numerous British companies to source and create bespoke steel beams, curving windows, and bricks. At five meters tall and weighing 12 tons, the piece mimics a life-size building while sporting a thickness of only 15 centimeters. The effect lends itself to the experience of a hefty, architectonic structure with a graceful, lightweight personality.
Explore more on Chinneck’s website and Instagram.
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An Uncanny Postcard Fit for the Era of Climate Catastrophe
by Aurelia Butler 7 May 2025, 22:07
From left: Sunset, Cyanometer, and Air Pollution postcards
An Uncanny Postcard Fit for the Era of Climate Catastrophe
May 7, 2025
ArtClimateDesignNature
Grace Ebert
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Depending on the day, you might look to the sky and see a sea of pale blue or a radiant sunset creeping toward the horizon. If you’re in a major metropolitan area, though, you might also be met with the characteristic red-brown haze of smog.
Berlin-based artist Macarena Ruiz-Tagle is behind the vibrant Cyanometer and Sunset postcards we’ve featured on Colossal (and that have sold out in our shop several times). But she also created a third version designed for those not-so-bright days.
Tiananmen Square, Beijing (November 2013). Photo by Macarena Ruiz-Tagle
The World Health Organization estimates that 99 percent of people on Earth breathe unsafe air, making Ruiz-Tagle’s Air Pollution postcard perhaps the most fitting for our era of climate catastrophe. While a stark contrast to the brilliant blues, yellows, and oranges of the other two, this design is awash in pale pinks and grays to match that of a gloomy, and even soiled, atmosphere. Like the others, the idea is to hold the work up to the sky and mark the corresponding hue before dropping it in the mail.
The interactive card shifts in meaning depending on whether the opening reveals a misty fog or air thick with chemicals, and it’s part of a growing movement to track climate data in a tangible, grassroots manner. “Separating the visual delight of being immersed in a cloud from the intoxicating reality of breathing heavily polluted air, the postcard evokes both the smog that engulfs global cities and the ethereal beauty of fog,” the artist writes. “In its mesmerizing aesthetic ambiguity, the work sustains a space for contemplation within our troubled atmosphere.”
Find all three postcards in the Colossal Shop, and explore more of Ruiz-Tagle’s work on her website.
Air Pollution postcard
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Monumental Murals by Agostino Iacurci Vibrantly Reimagine Urban Facades
by Aurelia Butler 21 April 2025, 14:35
“Cardi (1571-2021)” (2021), wall painting, dimensions variable. Borgo Universo, Aielli. Photo by Domenico d’Alessandro
Monumental Murals by Agostino Iacurci Vibrantly Reimagine Urban Facades
April 21, 2025
ArtDesign
Kate Mothes
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Murals by Agostino Iacurci bring drab buildings to life in bold jewel tones, playful patterns, color blocks, and symmetry. Whether painting directly onto bricks and plaster or designing immense fabric sheaths to cover construction scaffolding, the artist’s vibrant compositions enliven street corners and urban thoroughfares.
Iacurci often emphasizes geometric patterns, flora, classical vases, and niches that hold symbolic objects or figures. You might enjoy checking out Gingko Press’s Mural Masters, a survey of the next generation of street artists, and see more on Iacurci’s website and Instagram.
“Landscape n.1” (2021), wall painting, 27.7 x 7.1 meters. Las Vegas, Nevada. Commissioned by Life is Beautiful
“Disegno d’esame” (2021), enamel on wall, dimensions variable. Pascucci Elementary School, Santarcangelo di Romagna. Photo by Francesco Marini
“Grüne Oase” (2024). Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Photo by Ivan Murzin
“COINCIDENCES.” Ensorinstituut, Oostende, Belgium. Produced by The Crystal Ship
Detail of “COINCIDENCES”
“Landscape n.2” (2021), print on PVC scaffold sheet, 17 x 14 meters. Pastificio Cerere, Rome. Photo by Carlo Romano
“Landscape n.3” (2021). Pinacoteca Civica, Foggia. Photo by Domenico d’Alessandro
“L’antiporta” (2021), paint on wall, dimensions variable. Biblioteca Ugo Tognazzi, Pomezia. Curated by Marcello Smarrelli and Pastificio Cerere for Sol Indiges. Photo by Lorenzo Palmieri
Detail of “L’antiporta”
Detail of “Cardi (1571-2021).” Photo by Domenico d’Alessandro
Detail of “Disegno d’esame.” Photo by Domenico d’Alessandro
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Melding Craft and Sustainability, Richard Haining Sculpts Sleek Vessels from Reclaimed Wood
by Aurelia Butler 11 April 2025, 14:01
All images courtesy of Richard Haining, shared with permission
Melding Craft and Sustainability, Richard Haining Sculpts Sleek Vessels from Reclaimed Wood
April 11, 2025
ArtCraftDesign
Grace Ebert
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Renewal is at the center of Richard Haining’s practice. The Brooklyn-based artist and designer (previously) sculpts supple vessels and functional goods from reclaimed wood sourced from local workshops or buildings destined for demolition. Intrigued by signs of wear and former uses, Haining has a deep reverence for the material and its history.
In his ongoing STACKED series, small offcuts nest together in intuitively laid grids. An angle grinder and hand tools help to smooth any jagged edges and create the soft, sleek forms Haining is known for.
The artist shares that his inspiration comes from a wide array of sources, “from Classical Antiquity to East Asian design (to) 17th-century European Craftsmanship.” His holy trinity, though, is beauty, craftsmanship, and mindfulness for the environment. He adds:
By juxtaposing repurposed ‘low-value’ materials with ‘high-art’ forms, I invite viewers to reconsider what is truly valuable. Ultimately, I hope to spark a conversation about sustainability, showing that art, craftsmanship, and environmental responsibility can coexist—and that beauty can emerge from the most unexpected places.
Haining is participating in two group exhibitions in New York, one at Lyle Gallery through April 20 and Paraphernalia Exhibition: Desire opening on May 7. Follow the latest on Instagram.
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Design

More stories

Order an Object at the New V&A East Storehouse to Get Up-Close to 5,000 Years of Cultural Heritage

Dr. Ella Hawkins Reimagines Ancient Artifacts and Prized Objects as Edible Replicas

In ‘Of the Oak,’ a Magnificent Tree at Kew Gardens Gets an Immersive ‘Digital Double’

A Rippling Townhouse Facade by Alex Chinneck Takes a Seat in a London Square

An Uncanny Postcard Fit for the Era of Climate Catastrophe

Monumental Murals by Agostino Iacurci Vibrantly Reimagine Urban Facades

Melding Craft and Sustainability, Richard Haining Sculpts Sleek Vessels from Reclaimed Wood

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