Rising Talent: Zuza Mengham
For MAISON&OBJET PARIS 2017 the Rising Talents programme will pay tribute to creativity made in the UK. 6 British designers from the worlds of architecture, fashion and design - Tom Dixon, Nigel Coates, Ilse Crawford, Paul Smith, Jay Osgerby and Ross Lovegrove - will sponsor a young artist whose work they wish to support.
Tom has chosen London-based artist and designer Zuza Mengham. Heavily rooted in a preoccupation with materials, her work explores the join between the recovery of traditional crafts and the creation of her own new methods of making. From giant steel and neon chandeliers housing hanging plants to small geometric glassy sculptures, her work is seated within an atheistic of modernist abstraction.
“It's sculptural, its unexpected, personal and colourful-it's photogenic and a little bit mysterious”
– Tom Dixon commenting on how Zuza's style/work reflect his own.
Her work explores the relationship between traditional artisanal know-how and her new ways of making. Zuza Mengham creates sculptural objects and installations. Refusing labels, she does not describe herself as a designer or as an artist but pinpoints her interest in making ‘spaces’ out of sculptures or making sculptures that hint towards function.
An attitude that’s shared with Tom Dixon:
“I think it can only lead to more interesting work - I spend my time trying to avoid being classified as I think it's restricting - and the fields are very related.”
Another preoccupation that Tom and Zuza share is one of materials and how thing’s work:
“My work has always been seated in a deep preoccupation with materials, how things work, why certain materials react the way they do, what you can create at a material’s point of volatility, fragility, and capturing the momentary.” – Zuza Mengham.
Zuza Mengham is on Instagram and has a studio in South London and is a part of Maison et Objet's 2017 Rising Talents awards.