This month, Glithero was the first design studio to exhibit work in Rotterdam’s new VIVID Gallery space.

The highlight of Glithero’s exhibition, which opened on 5 September, was a big Blueware wall piece comprised of almost one thousand tiles with blue photo-prints of plants made specifically for the space. Using photography, Tim Simpson and Sarah van Gameren of Glithero perpetually try to solve the riddle of how to capture the beauty they see in the moment of transformation. Experimentation with photographic formulas led to the union of the long forgotten photographic technique of cyanotype, and a medium often associated with the colour blue: ceramics.

Flowers and humble weeds are arranged on vases and tiles with a cyanotype infused surface and then exposed to UV light. The visible area turns intense blue and a ghostly white shadow remains hidden behind the flower. The tile patterns are created with pressed specimens composed between sheets of glass like a photographic negative, and are the first step in Glithero’s attempt to find their own dialogue between craft and design.

‘This project is built upon the inventions of our Anglo-Dutch predecessors, shattered into small fragments and kaleidoscopically rearranged,’ says Simpson. ‘Anna Atkins was the first in 1843 to present cyanotypes of plants and the work bears reference to the Dutch tradition of still life painting and Delft Blue.

‘Josiah Wedgwood’s meticulous development in process inspired us in our long term experimentation to realize Blueware,’ continues Simpson, ‘And experts at Kew Gardens shared with us the technique of pressing and preserving that has not changed for hundreds of years. The result is a unique collection of blue pieces that serve as artefacts to the moment they were created. Our subjects, the plants and weeds, grow between the pavements of our local borough and map the area where we currently work and live.’

The exhibition runs until 7 November, 2010.