Barbican exhibits three decades of Ron Arad

Ron Arad:Restless traces the development of Arad's designs over three decades and brings together over 120 works.

The exhibition will include pieces from the artist's early post-punk approach, assembling works from readymade parts, to his technologically advanced sculptural objects made of highly polished metals.

Featuring an installation design by Ron Arad Associates using the latest LED display technology, the exhibition also includes architectural designs and mass-produced objects.

Rover Chair,1981 - a car seat salvaged from a scrap yard and mounted on a steel frame - and Well-Tempered Chair -1986, a reinterpretation of the overstuffed club chair using four thin sheets of tempered steel bent and held together by wing nuts - will be shown.

Reinventing the Wheel, 1996 is inspired by a children's toy featuring a globe floating inside a sphere and features a bookcase with a wheel-within-a-wheel construction that can be rolled around while the shelves remain level.

Movement, play and an element of risk or surprise are said to be key characteristics of Arad's work.

For this exhibition, Arad's team have devised mechanisms for some of the works.

The exhibition culminates in a large area featuring Arad's own ping pong table, made from stainless steel, surrounded by a selection of manufactured chairs ranging from modular sofas and screw stools to sprung chaises and upholstered armchairs of exaggerated forms.

Visitors are encouraged to experience the works - sit or recline or play a game of table tennis.

For Swarovski, Arad designed Lolita, 2004 - a chandelier made up of 1,050 LED lights embedded within 2,100 crystals and the first to have its own mobile-phone number.

Text messages appear at the top of the chandelier and wind down the ribbon curves, creating the impression that it is slightly spinning.

Lo-Rez-Dolores-Tabula-Rasa, 2007 is a table made of a thin sheet of Corian illuminated with images using 22,000 fibre-optic pixels.

It is displayed in a dark room for full effect.

The exhibition also features a specially designed set of eight floor-to-ceiling LED screens.

Placed near the entrance of all the upper galleries, each screen transmits a changing display of words and images relating to the surrounding works, including digital renderings of chairs or facts about the design process and materials used.

Architectural projects featured include the rotating mountain-top restaurant and gallery Les Diablarets, Gstaad, Swizerland; the Mediacite shopping complex, Liege, Belgium; and the Design Museum in Holon, Israel.

Due to open February 2010, the building is characterised by five bands of Corten Steel that move around the museum's internal spaces.

The exhibition also offers an insight into the development of objects, from initial idea to end product.

Prototypes from different stages of the design process are displayed together with finished works.

Short films, including early footage of Arad at work in the studio or pieces being manufactured, are shown.

The exhibition also includes two workshop settings that feature pieces part-way through the production process, offering visitors a sense of how the works are made.

Over the past two decades, Arad has collaborated with manufacturers including Alessi, Capellini, Moroso, Notify and Vitra, successfully adapting his designs to affordable materials and industrial techniques.

Initially a one-off piece made of sprung steel, Bookworm (1993), a flexible yet sturdy curving shelf with built-in bookends, was later produced in plastics by Kartell in three different lengths that could be 'endlessly' combined and arranged.

While Vitra produces the moulded plastic stacking chair,Tom Vac (1999), the chair was originally conceived for a sculpture entitled Domus Totem, consisting of a stack of 100 chairs made for the 1997 Milan Furniture fair.

Ron Arad: Restless, 18 February-16 May 2010, is curated by Lydia Yee, curator, Barbican Art Gallery.

A programme of talks, workshops and late-night events examines the rising profile of London's contemporary design community and Arad's role in it during the past four decades.

A range of Arad's designs, as well as a selection of inspirational objects and books handpicked by Arad, will be on sale in the shop.

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