Rooted. is a solo exhibition of works by British design duo JAMESPLUMB at Gallery FUMI.
In early 2022, JAMESPLUMB, the creative duo formed of Hannah Plumb and James Russell, relocated from London to the deep green valleys of the Shropshire Hills to renovate a derelict farmhouse. The farmhouse, along with its barns and overgrown land, presented a new world of inspiration amidst the unpredictable rhythms of rural life. It was here that Copper Roots emerged - a series of lighting sculptures crafted with salvaged materials from the controlled chaos of ongoing renovation.
Copper Roots is a continuation of the designers’ Steel Roots series. Electric lights replace the candles, but the ritual of placing them one by one, along with the delicate counterbalance, remains. Salvaged copper pipework forms a skeletal frame, with the material's conductivity providing electrification - electrons flow where water once did. Mobiles are crafted with fragments of limecrete, and custom LED bulbs provide the warm glow of a candle with the constancy of a luminaire.
Drawn to imperfection and accidental beauty, Hannah Plumb and James Russell have worked collaboratively for twenty years. Their work explores the tension between permanence and impermanence, material and immaterial, and, in particular, the sometimes thin line between fragility and solidity.
