Nilufar x Audrey Large – exploring boundaries between real and digital

For Milan Design Week 2023 Nilufar dedicated the spaces of the renowned “Palcoscenico” at Nilufar Depot to Audrey Large for her most extensive solo exhibition to date – Celestial Proceedings orchestrated in collaboration with Nina Yashar which is an explosion, even in terms of size, of the research undertaken by the artist and showcased by the gallery over the years.

A one-of-a-kind setting where contemporary design effortlessly dialogues with iconic historical design pieces – Nina Yashar opened Nilufar Depot in 2015, a 1,500 square-meter space spread over three floors and nestled in Via Lancetti, Milan.

On the other hand, a French designer based in the Netherlands straddling between art and object design – Audrey Large explores the potential of digital image manipulation processes applied to the design of our material surroundings. 

In the context of exponential digitization, she positions her ecelctic practice in an interdisciplinary form of design that utilizes digital cinema and image theory as a field of research to reconsider object design methodologies.

“As an object designer – I like to think about digital images as the matter I work with in order to create objects, not with the primary purpose of functionality but rather on the pretext of proximity with the viewer, in order to challenge their perception of materiality!” shares Large.

Harmoniously weaving together existing pieces into the flow of refreshingly new, mesmerizing forms – the focal point of Celestial Proceedings at Nilufar is an innovative monumental sculpture that Large meticulously crafted specifically for this installation over a period of time.

Her work involves reiteration and translation across formats and has consistently straddled the line between the real and digital domains from inception.

In Large’s working methodology – the distinction between the real and digital domains is irrelevant and negligible. 

Additionally, she further argues that the digital files that determine the CNC production of 3D-printed objects are not inferior to the physical objects themselves, and in fact, may be even more substantial. 

These files represent matter in the making – layered and beautifully brimming with full potential.

For Large the transition between digital and material occurs seamlessly – “I render these files into digital images that I print on paper, export them and also print them in 3D, I then draw the 3D-printed object on paper, create a new 3D model from the same elements, draw it again and reprint it again in 3D. 

This arbitrary and liberating sequence does not seem to detect boundaries between real and virtual, between what is, physically and what merely appears!” Large explains.