They’re a team of artists and designers almost impossible to categorise, unless maybe one uses their term – ‘design alchemists’.
Certainly, in 2004, metal started it all when twins Ian and Richard Abell acquired the rights to the world’s leading liquid metal technology, a technique that permits room temperature liquid metals to be sprayed on to any surface – even lace.
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Almost immediately they collaborated with designer David Collins on the new Nobu restaurant in Mayfair creating a gold evolving floor, designed to wear through to different layers of metal over fine, sculptural columns that fade seamlessly from gold to titanium and a wall in which white gold fills the hairline cracks of fire-ravaged oak.
Today their business client list embraces Fortnum & Mason, Donna Karan and Gordon Ramsay as well as, privately, some of the UK’s most rich and famous.
And you can’t say they don’t have humour – ‘Based Upon Taking the Piss’ is £100,000’s worth of gold urinal incorporating its own price in sold silver – Duchamp eat your heart out!
Applauded now everywhere from Vogue to the New York Times as well as providing some of the most original, innovative and luxurious surface finishes in the interiors market, they’re also mounting their own exhibitions and exploring new territories.
How about ‘Based Upon My School’ – limited edition old British school desks reinterpreted as modern-day workstations?
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