At home with Emma Louise Payne

Emma Louise Payne will add something refreshingly different to London’s annual Design Festival this year. The ceramicist and curator will make her family home the setting for a range of craft objects she wants visitors to imagine as personal belongings. The Objects We Live By (13-21 September) is a hosting of works by 10 designers and makers, exhibited throughout Seventy-Six, a brick-fronted multi-storey house that Payne shares on and off with her parents. Although it’s part of a classic London garden square, the home and its neighbours were rebuilt in the early 20th century, giving them a contemporary feel. The setting promises the intimacy of Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge, or Finn Juhl’s House in Charlottenlund, Denmark, where furniture and art aren’t on plinths or under spotlights but shown as part of life.

Working between London and the countryside, Payne completes commissions for homes and hotels, as well as producing tableware and furniture and lighting that incorporates ceramic. She first studied product design at Camberwell College of Arts, before completing an MA in ceramic design at Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen. Those two experiences have shaped an approach that plays with the line between function and art. London Plane, her tactile tableware collection of slip cast coloured porcelain, could be admired equally on a gallery plinth or as the talking point at a dinner party.

It's a stark contrast to County Hall Pottery on London’s South Bank, where Payne is creative director, putting on group ceramics exhibitions in its more conventional gallery space. Opened during London Craft Week 2024, the Pottery has become a welcome addition to the craft scene, placing emerging artists among the more established, and showing a range of bold works and innovative techniques. The Object We Live By offers a different type of curation, with works from a range of disciplines on show, all chosen by Payne for their ability to tell the story of their making. Joining family antiques and objects the ceramicist has collected on her travels, each object has a focus on thoughtful design, craft processes, and slowness.

Do you live at Seventy-Six?

It's actually my parents’ home. I spend Saturday to Tuesday in my countryside studio near Henley-on-Thames, and then the rest of the week in London, staying at their home. My parents do the opposite, coming to London at the weekend for shopping and going to theatres and art galleries. It’s kind of a swap. Because it's no-one’s permanent home, it's not that full of stuff. I’ve always had this idea it could be an exhibition space, playing on the idea of houses that are also galleries, and house museums.

Is it the first time the whole house will be open to the public?

Yes. The Objects We Live By will be very different to other exhibitions that I've been involved in in the last year. We’ll have an index in the basement, where you can learn about all the designers and makers in one place, then you work your way up through the house to find all their objects. The pieces will also be labelled, but in a way that's not too intrusive. It’s inspired by an exhibition of a Swedish textile brand I saw at 3daysofdesign in Copenhagen. It was set up as if the brand’s original designers were living there, with pieces surrounded by lots of personal touches and elements that influenced their pattern designs.

Why did you choose this format? 

I wanted to host an exhibition that highlights the interaction between people and things. And for visitors to notice the thought process that goes into designing and making. That everything around us has been thought out. A chair in the corner of a bedroom might be somewhere to put clothes you are going to wear again, but it could also be sculptural. It could be something that tells a story or enhances your day. Everything in a home has been collected and has a meaning.

How did you choose whose work to show?

Some, like Blake Carlson-Joshua (BC Joshua Designs) are artists that I’m new to working with. I just came across his work and loved it. It's very playful. It's quite sculptural. And a different material to mine. Because I'm a ceramicist, I wanted my work to be alongside others’ from different disciplines. David Irwin and Atelier Thirty Four I wanted to invite, because they've invited me to be a part of their exhibitions in the past. Phoebe Stubbs (Gather Glass) is a glassblower and friend who I do a collaborative collection with called Meld. I came across Granite + Smoke, purely through searching and asking around for great textile designers and makers. There was an element of building trust with people I haven’t worked with before. I needed to communicate clearly the idea for this exhibition and how it’s different to a gallery. Practically, I also need to trust that they will produce some good work and deliver on time.

Are they makers or designers?

There are craftspeople like Pheobe and I, who design and make. And some who design for others to make in small batch production, yet I would say there is still a craft process. Granite + Smoke are presenting a new collection of hand-tufted rugs with British rug makers Roger Oates Design, for example, using British blended wool, with lots of hand-finishing involved. Atelier Thirty Four have worked with cast aluminium for the first time, studying the casting process and designing a modular candlestick project around that.

What do the designers and makers think of the concept?

They think it’s quite different. They are more used to showing in white box galleries, or styled showrooms where everything is from the same brand. Here their pieces are mixed in with antiques that I've been collecting over the years. A rug I bought in Morocco six years ago, a tap that I bought in an antique market in Paris. It's a weird, eclectic mix, and it is stuff that I've chosen so the exhibits are in conversation with each other and what is around them. It’s the idea of presenting them as living things.

How did you decide where to place each work?

When I first thought about it, I thought maybe it's a plinth in each room, and it's in a bit of a weird spot, like a plinth coming out of the bath with a chair on it. Something completely crazy. But as I talked more about it with the designers and artists, I thought it would be better to have them in their correct spaces. It has taken quite a lot of thought though. Daniel Mullen from Los Angeles does kind of cast resin and sand work, that would suit a fireplace, but we don’t have one. They’ll be in the hallway instead, as a welcome moment which is perfect for leading you up to the rest of the house.

Will there be many new works on show?

A few, yes. Pheobe’s studio is showing table lamps for the first time. She was working on blowing these big vases and liked how it looked as if they were dancing, sort of off-centre. So she’s playing on that concept for these table lamps. I'm doing an extension of my London Plane tableware range to include bowls, mugs, and pendant lights. You can also see my custom bathroom tiles and lighting in the house. BC Joshua is exploring paper pulp processes he's used before to make a hanging light and side table. Artist NAT MAKS and designer Brogan Cox have a debut collaboration that brings together fluid ink marbling and woodworking. The two tables are inspired by Margate’s tidal landscapes.

What's your idea of home?

Home for me is family. As much as I love objects, it really is about people. I find objects quite sentimental, and I don't like choosing things in a rush, which is why the house may not be quite ready when people visit! But I think that’s okay because there’s an informality to an exhibition in a house. Objects have stories, that’s why they are nostalgic. They create a home that feels a bit like being around family.

How do you want visitors to feel at The Objects We Live By?

Relaxed. It's definitely meant to be a respite. There’s a courtyard garden, and we’re hopefully linking up with a local coffee shop to serve people drinks there. There’s no pressure to look at everything. People can just come to sit here and have a chat in the afternoons. A little oasis in the madness of London Design Festival.