Gerrit Rietveld and Ami Kanki at CHELSEA space - exterior view

The CHELSEA space blog may have been quiet for a while but we have been as busy as ever here at Millbank, firstly installing the Summer Window 2011 and then working on the next CHELSEA space exhibition - ideal home which opens on September 20th as part of the London Design Festival and the Icon Design Trail 2011.

Rietveld 'Red and Blue' chairs flanking Ami Kanki's 'Guard Me'

Every year CHELSEA space closes the door throughout August but has an exhibition that can be viewed from outside. Summer Window 2011 comprises of two de Stijl Red and Blue chairs designed in 1917 by Gerrit Rieveld and a new work, Guard Me 2011, by emerging artist and designer Ami Kanki.

Ami Kanki 'Guard Me' 2011

The iconic Rietveld chairs were bought for Chelsea School of Art directly from Rietveld in 1963. Ami Kanki’s ‘Guard Me’ comprises of a model of CHELSEA space complete with a miniature reconstruction of our last exhibition Roger Ackling: Down To Earth.

Ami Kanki 'Guard Me' 2011 showing her miniature reconstruction of Roger Ackling's show 'Down to Earth'

Roger Ackling in the actual 'Down to Earth' installation at CHELSEA space

Ami Kanki originally made the model of CHELSEA space so that she could create CCTV style footage by filming the model. It is somehow appropriate that her work refers to surveillance because CHELSEA space is on the former site of a particularly low point in civilisation - the Millbank Penitentiary, a 19^th Century prison that pioneered sophisticated observation techniques. See Ami’s CHELSEA space footage of Roger Ackling: Down to Earth and Aftermath curated by Laure Genillard click here or visit her website at www.amikanki.com