The Amsterdam-based studio DRIFT creates sculptures, environments, and performances that offer striking commentaries and speculative imaginings about humanity’s relationships with nature and technology. Co-founded by Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta in 2007, the multidisciplinary studio has grown into a team of more than sixty members whose work freely bridges the categories of art and design.

The centerpiece of the exhibition is a site-specific installation of Fragile Future, one of the studio’s most influential works. LEDs covered in dandelion seeds—painstakingly hand-glued to mimic the natural shape of the flowerheads—are caught within a web of delicate bronze circuitry. While the modular circuits allude to our technology-driven present, the organic elements propose a precarious reconciliation between the natural and human-made worlds. The exhibition also explores how the studio’s artworks come to life. Drawings, models, prototypes, and other documents of the studio’s experiments offer glimpses of the research and engineering that lie behind the apparent effortlessness of DRIFT’s experiential creations.

Presenting an engaging cross-section of DRIFT’s creative practice, this exhibition coincides with the 2022 Design Excellence Award issued by Collab, the museum’s support group for modern and contemporary design.