LDF 2012: Beautiful show charts the evolution of tributes to a fictitious figure

Amid the more traditional offerings at the London Design Festival there are always more intriguing options for those willing to seek them out. At last year’s festival Kirsty Minns and Érika Muller hosted a show in which they invited a group of artists to respond to 31 photographs of an unknown girl and her family found in a Brighton junk shop. What they developed was a beautiful and oddly nuanced biography of the mysterious Vera.

This year the duo have returned, this time asking eight creatives to respond to a single image of the young “Vera” grinning and brandishing candy floss on what appears to be a seafront.

The results again are really impressive, from Study O Portable’s distorted sandglass to Phillippe Malouin’s toy boats, Daniel & Emma’s representations of the sweet treats on offer at the seaside to Liliana Ovalle’s mysterious magic boxes. It’s interesting to see what how much each participant has invested in her story and developed the narrative, and it says something about our capacity to formulate and shape the lives of others.

Here’s hoping Vera is back again next year in another new guise.

Vera Chapter Two runs at the Brompton Design District until Sunday and you can read all the artists’ statements on the Vera website.