Human Nature by Jeremy Maxwell Wintrebert - London Design Festival

Champagne Perrier-Jouët are one of the lead sponsors of the Festival this year and have commissioned a dynamic young glass maker called Jeremy Wintrebert to create a large installation for the V&A.

‘Human Nature’ showcases something totally handmade and extremely simple but which can ultimately enhance beauty in our lives. Just as champagne evolves in the bottle so too does life and since the industrial revolution and advances in technology we live in a time where it is harder and harder to get back to the essentials. Comprising a series of large scale coloured glass cylinders displayed within the built interior of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the work will take you on a journey through colour drawing on the broader cyclical nature of life as expressed in the round forms of the glass reflected in the creation of champagne from vine to bottle. The glass cylinders are part of the process of making mouth-blown window glass. In this process, they only exist in cylindrical form for a very short time, before being split open and flattened, to take their intended shape as flat glass. Jeremy was fascinated by how beautiful and simple they were and so decided to stop the process for these cylinder shapes to exist. They encapsulate the combination he responds the most to in blown glass, which is colour and thinness on a big scale.

In many ways ‘Human Nature’ is inspired by that quest of making beautiful simple forms in collaboration with the spaces we find ourselves in. The powerful inherent balance to be found in nature is something that we need to seek within ourselves and the spaces we create. In this way, the 'Human Nature' installation will directly connect with Perrier-Jouët's own philosophy, drawing people in with its colour and simple elegance allowing them to ponder life's unexpected beauty and values.

‘Human Nature’ will be shown in the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries at the V&A as part of the London Design Festival, 13 – 21 September 2014.