Objects With Narratives explored the passage of time at PAD London 2026

At PAD London 2026, Objects With Narratives presented What Remains?, an exhibition exploring the relationship between material, memory and passage of time through a selection of product designs whose appeal lay in their ambiguity. The works occupied a space between the contemporary and the historic, challenging conventional distinctions between collectible design, sculpture and art. “Every piece was crafted in the present, yet many carry a sense of the past, as though found rather than fabricated,” the design gallery's official release said.

Featuring Paul Cocksedge, Middernacht, Karl Monies, Ben Storms, KRJST Studio, Vladimir Slavov, Mircea Anghel and Manu Baño, the design exhibition also revisited a sensibility that had distinguished the gallery’s award-winning presentation at PAD London in 2023. Rather than repeating that earlier approach, What Remains? focused on the narrative dimensions of collectable objects, letting individual works retain their mystery while contributing to a broader conversation about permanence and change—“Not as a recreation, but as a return to the same feeling of discovery, warmth and mystery,” as the contemporary design gallery noted.

A defining feature of the showcase which was on view from October 13 – 18, 2026, was the tension between an object’s actual age and its perceived history. Surfaces appeared weathered, edges were softened by use, materials carried the weight of time. Bronze, wood and stone seemed to hold traces of an existence beyond their making. “It is as if a material remembers a story it never lived,” the gallery explained, further saying, “References to different cultures, periods and places surface[d] throughout, never literally: each object seem[d] to belong to several narratives at once, and the boundaries between furniture, sculpture, art object and artefact begin to dissolve even more.”

The setting also played an important role. Earthen walls and bespoke timber flooring created a tactile, understated environment, letting the works stand out. The architecture also served as a counterpoint to the collection, reinforcing its emphasis on the handmade and the imperfect.

“What Remains? ask[d] what gives an object the sense that it might outlive the moment of its making: the material, the craft or simply the possibility that some objects belong to no single time at all,” Objects with Narratives asked.