Aesop | DesignTO

Conceptualised by Toronto-based multidisciplinary designer Philip Beesley of Living Architecture Systems Group, ‘Aletheia’ is a pensive, temporary intervention at Aesop Queen Street West. Taking cues from a mutual collaborator, Iris van Herpen of Aesop’s 2018 Gift Kits, ‘Atlas of Attraction,’ the display is inspired by a philosophy of deep interconnectedness. 

Suspended from above, the installation features a spherical meshwork of spines, fronds, and densely massed glasswork, outlined by a lace-like membrane that motions in responsiveness to the store’s environment. The general shell of the structure mimics the filamentary shape of a head’s bone formations, creating—like our minds—a little world. The project’s namesake, Aletheia, comes from the ancient Greek, and implies nourishing truth through transparency. 

Both architect and visual artist, Philip Beesley cogitates his work as having a mind of its own. Less interested in thinking of architecture as a frozen form, his experimental interventions aim to create a relationship between structure, environment, and people.