Well, why shouldn’t a lobster be used as part of a telephone? Salvador Dali was very much the high priest of the surrealist movement in the 1920s and 30s. Both artists and designers at the time asked themselves the question – does the object I’m making have to be functional or literal or can I introduce a wild idea into the making of this and beguile the viewer? I do like the playful approach of these makers and thinkers who realised that you don’t always have to follow the rules. For contemporary artists and designers this feels like a natural state of things, especially when we are all thinking so keenly about reusing and recycling. Why not use left over glass, metal or wood to create a piece.

These are all functional objects but they’ve been elevated by a kind of surreal idealism. Jasper Morrison uses elements of a bicycle to create his table, Gaudi uses gorgeous carved lines in wood to create chair which looks set to embrace you, Kiesler came up with a rocking chair idea which can transform into a table and Danny Lane’s Etruscan Chair uses broken glass combined with industrial pipes.

This is a Piece of Cheese, (Ceci est un morceau de fromage) 1936, is scribbled on the back of this painting by Magritte, of the picture set inside the glass cloche. It’s witty and clever and is the start of artists’ views that you can use the everyday, the mass-produced and the hum-drum to make a statement and create art.

I was very taken by this lighting installation by Nacho Carbonell made from left over scraps of material found in his studio. It’s metal mesh and plaster but looks so ethereal.

Great to see artists from the first half of the last century represented. On the left is Quadriga by Eileen Agar (1935) and on the right an intriguing painting by Le Corbusier from 1954, clearly still in cubist thrall. He was a painter before turning to architecture.

Objects of Desire is on at the Design Museum until 19th February 2023 and it’s fascinating show.