Everything Is Connected
As Guggenheim Bilbao opens a retrospective of Ruth Asawa's work, curator Geaninne Gutiérrez-Guimarães selects five pieces that reveal a six-decade exploration of form, material and nature
- Words Ayla Angelos
There is a photograph from 1954 of Ruth Asawa sitting cross-legged on her studio floor, a half-finished wire sculpture in the works. Her hands are mid-motion, looping brass wire around itself in the same continuous gesture she would repeat and reinvent for the next sixty years. It's a small, unremarkable-looking action – wire bent into a loop, then another, then another – and yet from it grew one of the most distinctive sculptural vocabularies of postwar American art: bulbous, transparent forms that hang from gallery ceilings like floating jellyfish, their shadows pooling on the floor.Born in 1926 on a farm in Norwalk, California, the fourth of seven children to Japanese immigrant
The Shape of Optimism
When Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby began working in the 1990s, Britain was redefining itself. Their colourful, technically assured …
Southbank Skate
Fifty years after skateboarders discovered the Undercroft beneath the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Southbank Centre celebrates a free …
Martin Parr’s Everyday Systems
Across five decades, Parr photographed people and places, exposing how class, aspiration and consumption are engineered into daily life
Inside Issue 4
The Triennale design museum in Milan has had a successful eight years under the presidency of Stefano Boeri, with Marco Sammicheli …
Anima launches Issue 4 with Flos
An exclusive look at the launch of Anima Issue 4 and the Flos Nocturne Collection
When Fashion Becomes Art
From lobster dresses to skeletal silhouettes, a new exhibition at London’s V&A charts Elsa Schiaparelli’s radical fusion of …
Inside the Marimekko Print Archive
At Matter and Shape in Paris, the Finnish design house opens up its 75-year archive of prints, revealing how artists, colour kitchens …
Spaces in Dialogue
In Salvati e Tresoldi: Lo spazio delle interazioni (Electa, 1985), Alberto Salvati and Ambrogio Tresoldi present architecture as …
Fragile Architecture
For Maison Ruinart’s Conversations with Nature programme, Japanese artist Tadashi Kawamata unveils a sequence of timber installations …
Still Life with a Chair
When Casa Batlló starts to move
Matt Clark from United Visual Artists transforms Gaudí’s landmark into a choreographic performance, unveiling a new facade commission …
A Catalogue of Everything
From Prada’s fashion archive to Warhol’s Time Capsules, the act of preservation shapes the way we see, access and experience history.
The Art of Motion
In a world dominated by screens, Helen Chesner and Isabel Gibson champion the tangible through kinetic installations and interactive …
Lines of Disruption
In Couleur et Fabrication, Wade Guyton transforms a 1960s Italian lamp catalogue into layered compositions of colour, chance and …
Sculpting Air
Inspired by côte&ciel designer Emilie Arnault's sculptural approach, architect and spatial artist Alberto Simoni of …
Blackletter Revival
From Saltburn to Juicy Couture, pop albums to podcast logos, blackletter type is everywhere – and it’s shaking off its outdated associations
Back to the Roots
After years of private equity-driven expansion, Flos and B&B Italia are returning to what made them great. With Piero Gandini at …
Can plastic ever be green?
As global temperatures hit an all-time high and the plastic-free movement gains momentum, can the wonder material of the 20th century …
Back to Milan
With a highly personal exhibition in a Milanese palazzo, as well as a presence in the Salone del Mobile in Milan, Michael …
The Politics of Data
From wealth inequality to media bias, Mona Chalabi’s data visualisations tell stories that numbers alone cannot
Design as Resistance
How Palestinian architects, artists and designers navigate material restrictions, urban fragmentation and cultural preservation under …
Era of Adaptation
Carlo Ratti's four-word manifesto frames an exhibition that grapples with climate catastrophe, collapsing populations and the …
Printmaking with Ramon Keimig
Through zines, posters, record sleeves and installations, the Swiss artist and designer brings the imperfections of the analogue …
Giles Tettey Nartey’s designs are rooted in African craft traditions
Exploring ritual, memory and materiality, the British-Ghanaian artist and architect reveals how his heritage and experiences …
Design on the Menu
Five restaurants where architecture and design have made a big impression
What is next for Samuel Ross
The polymath in conversation with Ayla Angelos
Elio Fiorucci
As Triennale Milano unveils a new retrospective of Fiorucci’s life and influence, Anima speaks with the exhibition’s curator Judith …
A language without words
From ancient hieroglyphs to the Olympic Games and architectural signs for the deaf community, pictograms have become a powerful tool …
Anima talks to the British artist and designer about what's next after selling his stake in his business, A-COLD-WALL*
