In response to COVID-19, Frieze Viewing Rooms was launched. How did this shift to online alter the presentation and impact of the exhibition - will this pave the way for future presentations across challenging times? How was this received by the audience and press?

The exhibition was a curated selling exhibition of works on consignment from multiple European, North and Latin American galleries. Consequently a balance of both curatorial and logistical imperatives were driving the content. We worked with Mexico-based Emilano Godoy of TUUX studio to bring the various works into a tightly-packed jigsaw of themes, material dialogues, hues, periods and relationships by association. The shift online threw this jigsaw up in the air. We did not have the luxury to start again or reselect. Working with the same pieces of the puzzle, we needed to reconfigure the exhibition to meet the new format. Fortunately all the galleries we were working with supported the change and helped enhance the experience through additional imagery. Alongside more contextual written information, visitors to the Frieze Viewing Rooms were able to view artworks virtually, at scale and upon their own walls. TUUX also created renderings of  select groups of works to help bring scale and tangibility to the digital platform.

Asides from the online shift, with the first design contribution being held for Frieze New York, was there any intention behind it launching in America, over Frieze London? How might this have been received differently in location or audience reach?

Each of the various Frieze fairs has their own remit. New York, under the keen direction of Loring Randolph, looks to encourage a cross-disciplinary dialogue. Though Frieze Masters and many galleries who participate in the international Frieze editions, including Salon 94 and Franco Noeri, have presented design within the fair. Ours was simply the first dedicated space. I hope it will not be the last.

2018 saw your ‘Women Design’ publication highlight gender inequality within the design industry, celebrating the work of women across architecture, industrial, graphic and digital design. Themes of inequality, gender and race is a very prevalent dialogue held particularly in recent times. What recent ‘shakers’ within the design or wider creative community have you noticed ensuring diversity of inclusion?

A 2018 Design Council report of diversity within the industry, published after ‘Women Design’, shows that the statistics still are not good. The UK’s design workforce is mostly male (78%), which is a higher figure than for the wider UK workforce which is 53% male. Women make up 63% of all students studying creative arts and design courses at university, yet they are less likely than men to be in senior roles – showing there is a disconnect between leaving education and advancement in career prospects. Where women have always succeeded is in positions or roles in which there are no gatekeepers, where they have been able to write and effect their own career programme. Designers such as Neri Oxman, Daisy Alexander Ginsberg, Christien Meindertsma are just a handful of wonderful role models . Racial imbalance is a whole other concern for the design community and one that I hope we can start to redress.

What are your thoughts on how such complex social structures can be tackled, and how can designers play a role in supporting this change for an inclusive future?

This is an enormous question. 
One very simple response is to make sure there is a fair representation in every magazine, talks panel, exhibition, public presentation, etc.

Previously exhibiting Formafantasma’s ‘De Natura Fossilium’ collection at Gallery Libby Sellers highlighted material references to nature. Formafantasma are key designers in the industry with a focus on nature, materiality and research. We’d love to hear your opinion on the future of design possibly taking a direction away from a product focus, to a conceptual, research driven approach and how this might alter the direction of future exhibitions using social and environmental concepts as the driving force?
*The gallery represented Formafantasma and commissioned entire bodies of work from them.

Formafantasma’s research driven projects follow a trajectory of critical design process and production – those who have used design as a tool or trojan horse to prise open issues surrounding the industry, material choice, sustainability, gender, and countless other societal, ecological and political issues. From the Arts and Crafts movement of the late 19th century, the Radical Design group of 1960s Italy, through Ant Farm in early 1970s America, to Dunne and Raby in London in the 1990s, to more contemporary practitioners like Julia Lohmann, Fernando Laposse, Neri Oxman or Cooking Section.