Spirit of Ecstasy Challenge
Reimagining an Icon
Announcing the Inaugural Spirit of Ecstasy Challenge
Launching this year, the Spirit of Ecstasy Challenge celebrates both tradition and innovation. This biennial design project will invite three emerging design visionaries to create unique works inspired by the ethos of Rolls-Royce, as symbolised by the Spirit of Ecstasy, the sculptural figurine that adorns the bonnet of every Rolls-Royce motor car.
Designers will be invited to experiment and expand the boundaries of materials that are key to Rolls-Royce craft, including leather, wood, glass, aluminium, textile and technical fibre. The Spirit of Ecstasy Challenge brings design, materials and craft into a dynamic dialogue, with the creation of objects that will be exhibited around the world.
Ever since the first encounter between Charles Rolls and Henry Royce in 1904, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has drawn vitality from the creative energies of its time. Designed by Charles Sykes in 1911, the Spirit of Ecstasy has become an instantly recognisable icon of British luxury. She remains one of the world’s most famous symbols, embodying beauty, luxury, style and perfection. Her symbolism for excellence, innovation and limitless creativity is the source of inspiration for this new, future facing design initiative – the Spirit of Ecstasy Challenge.
CREATIVE AMBITION
The Spirit of Ecstasy Challenge seeks to discover new and emerging talents in the design world and take them on an exciting journey. It will enable and inspire creativity, offering designers with exceptional ideas time and support to realise ambitious creations. There are no limits, just a desire to expand technical and conceptual boundaries, leaving a legacy of creative achievement with the Spirit of Ecstasy as the point of reference. This initiative is looking for creatives who are dedicated to pushing the limits of expectations, to elevate all around us, to challenge the impossible. It reflects the essence of who we are: our enduring commitment to heritage, conscientiousness, craftsmanship, rarity, and a constant striving for perfection.
‘Design excellence and the innovative mastery of craft and materials have been integral to our motor cars since their inception. Today, as we look to a future in which innovation and excellence are more vital than ever – the Spirit of Ecstasy Challenge will further a dynamic dialogue between technology, materials and craftsmanship in the wider design industry.’
OUR APPROACH
For the inaugural Spirit of Ecstasy Challenge the selected medium is Textile. From the handmade to the digital, the most traditional methods to the very newest materials, textile informs our lives at every level. The Spirit of Ecstasy Challenge invites creative visionaries to consider their culture and heritage, the local and the global environment in which their creation will exist, sustainability, and the technological impact of their creation.
The first step of the Spirit of Ecstasy Challenge was to invite participants from around the world. To achieve this, an international committee of nominators has been assembled. Each expert was asked to propose up to five emerging designers in the field of textile who demonstrate ingenuity, individuality, and creativity in their work. The nominators included curator Glenn Adamson, Anne Marr, Programme Director of Jewellery Textiles and Materials at Central St Martins, cultural advisor Nana Ocran, and Mizuki Takahashi executive director of the Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textiles, in Hong Kong.
The list of nominees was shared with an international jury which includes Yoon Ahn, Creative Director of Ambush and Jewellery Director at Dior Men, Tim Marlow, Director and Chief Executive of the Design Museum in London, Sumayya Vally, Principal of South African architectural practice Counterspace, and Anders Warming Director of Design of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. Together, they will select three finalists to participate in the Spirit of Ecstasy Challenge.
Each designer will visit the Home of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood, England, an internationally recognised Global Centre of Luxury Manufacturing Excellence, to meet and exchange creative ideas with master craftspeople and artisans, before finalising their creations. Completed works will be exhibited worldwide – including at Rolls-Royce showrooms – where they will be admired by art, design and luxury enthusiasts alike.
THE NOMINATORS
The nominators are all experts in their fields, who share a passion for innovation in design and textile.
GLENN ADAMSON
Glenn Adamson, based in the United States, is a curator, writer and former museum director at the intersection of craft, design and contemporary art. “I put forward practitioners who had a strong technical command of textile, from the analogue to the digital, but also a distinctive and forward-looking sensibility. The core concept of ecstasy was also important to me. I wanted to find people who could materialise the idea of joy and release which the adventurous days of early automobiles captures so well.”ANNE MARR
Anne Marr is the Programme Director of Jewellery Textiles and Materials at Central Saint Martins in London. She also has extensive industry experience as a consultant internationally. “Textile will be a positive gamechanger in years to come. Developing clever materials will make all the difference in how we share and repair our planet. So I have selected projects accordingly.”NANA OCRAN
Nana Ocran is a London-based writer, editor and cultural advisor. In 2017, she created People’s Stories Project, a network of Africa-based and diaspora writers, artists and cultural producers of all genres. “Each of the artists I nominated are unique in their aesthetic style, messaging, and commitment, creating work that goes way beyond producing decorative and material objects. Young creatives are steeped in the issues that affect the world and contribute important solutions across equality, global production, heritage and more.”MIZUKI TAKAHASHI
Mizuki Takahashi is the executive director of CHAT (Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile), in Hong Kong. She is known for her transdisciplinary curation, questioning conventional artistic taxonomy by creating exhibitions which can include anything from manga to performance, to traditional work. “I nominated those who have attempted to liberate textile materiality, through production and adaptation from conventional methodology. Sustainability is also an issue, and I nominated those proposing solutions to this without compromising the beauty of textiles.”THE JURY
YOON AHN
Yoon Anh is the Creative Director of her own fashion company, Ambush, and the Jewellery Director at Dior Men. Born in South Korea and educated partly in the USA, she is currently based in Tokyo. With a love of Pop cultural references and subcultures, Ahn has collaborated with partners from Bulgari to Nike, and brings a fresh eye to the consideration of textile.
TIM MARLOW
Tim Marlow is Chief Executive and Director of the Design Museum in London. Formerly Artistic Director of the Royal Academy of Arts and Director of Exhibitions at White Cube, Marlow has been involved in the contemporary art world for the past thirty years as a curator, writer and broadcaster. He has worked with many of the most important and influential artists of our time to deliver wide-ranging and popular programmes and brings a commitment to diverse and engaging exhibitions to his new role showcasing the transformational capability of design. Marlow sits on the Board of Trustees for the Imperial War Museum, Art on the Underground Advisory Board, the Design Age Institute and Cultureshock Media. Marlow was awarded an OBE in 2019.
SUMAYYA VALLY
Sumayya Vally is the Principal of Counterspace. Sumayya’s design, research and pedagogical practice is searching for expression for hybrid identities and contested territories. Her work is often forensic, and draws on the aural, performance, the supernatural, the wayward and the overlooked as generative places of history and work. A TIME100 Next List honouree and designer of the 20th Serpentine Pavilion (2020/2021), Vally is the youngest architect to be commissioned for the internationally renowned architecture programme. She has recently worked on initiating and developing Support Structures for Support Structures, a new fellowship programme launched at the Serpentine, an initiative which supports and networks artists working at the intersections of arts and ecology, arts and social justice and arts and the archive.
ANDERS WARMING
Anders Warming is the Director of Design at Rolls-Royce, a position he took up in July 2021. Passionate about new materials and innovation in automotive design, he has previously worked for BMW and MINI – as well as having had created automotive design within his own design studio.
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Moved By The Spirit
Ever since the first encounter between Charles Rolls and Henry Royce, in 1904, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has been synonymous with limitless imagination.
