Overture

Overture, created with renowned lighting designer Lee Broom, explores the idea of drapery and trompe l’oeil – a phrase coined in 1800 but a technique that dates back to the Greek and Roman period. Broom’s history with drapery begins from when he was a child, “Growing up in the theatre as a child actor I became very aware from a young age about the power of presentation. I was inspired by the imagination of the set designers who created a visual narrative to the production to enhance the emotion and experience of the entire performance.” His earliest memories from the theatre are of two things; the huge draped curtains with painted backdrops that would fly in and out of every scene and the sets that were sculptures in their own right and often quite surreal as the perspective was distorted and shifted to create the feeling of depth on stage. The magic of theatre is in those illusionary moments to create environments which deceive the audience into thinking they are part of that world – this is the key inspiration for the collection.

Years later as a student at Central Saint Martins studying Fashion Design, curtain making and drapery were Broom’s first foray into the world of interiors as he created avant-garde draped scenes for bars and restaurants across London as work to support himself during his studies. He also took his experience from his theatrical past and infused this into his fashion training to create garments using drapery whilst adding plaster to build structure. The result was fluid to the eye, yet rigid in form, like a living statue.

Moving forward to 2022, for Milan Design Week he created a collection of limited edition lighting pieces called Requiem which took this technique to a sculptural level. Broom created a surreal set of light fixtures in his factory with fluid drapery encapsulating illuminated globes, tubes and rings all formed in solid plaster making them appear to float in mid air.

For this collaboration Broom wanted to continue his story of theatre, drapery, sculpture and surrealism and transform a two dimensional story into a three dimensional scene. Illusion is a thread that continues to run through his work; the idea that you have to look twice or maybe three times to discover the real story, the real intention and the emotion within the creation. Overture has given him the opportunity to explore this in a new format and create an artwork which is both personal and performative.