12 March 2008

Macabre Lighting.




"The Fall of the Damned"

My assistant Megan was a little busy searching for light pendants this morning. She fell upon this chandelier. In a macabre, Most Excellent sort of way I like it. Granted, I do not expect to install it in any one of my client's homes. I also do not expect that any client I am currently working with will swallow the $51,150.00 price tag for Luc Merx's "Damned" light for mgx 'private collection'. Only a limited edition of forty-one chandeliers will be produced. So, if you would like these little bodies falling from your ceiling, I suggest hopping on the http://www.unicahome.com website to pre-order it.

The "Fall of the Damned" lampshade appears as a hovering mass of ornaments, opulent and bombastic. When viewed more closely it dissolves into single bodies, which are twisted in fear and seem to be frozen in mid-fall. their rhythmic order becomes slightly perplexing and finally renders the bodies an ornament. Softly, the fleshy parts of the bodies, legs and stomachs reflect the light. Because of the shadows the bodies cast on themselves, only parts of them appear in the foreground. Only fragments of the lit interior of the lamp are distinguishable. The aspects of the lit core change dramatically whenever the observer changes his/her position. These movements of the observer transform the stiff bodies into dynamic objects. the association with the fall of the damned - a metaphor for guilt and punishment - gives the lamp a certain amount of ambivalence: is it a moralistic message, an act of formalism or both? The design of this lamp undermines several taboos imposed on design in the 20th century: it is figurative, ornamental and narrative.

Color: white
Dimensions: 26"w x 11"h x 25"d



"Damned" chandelier installed and illuminated



"The Fall of the Damned" Light - Bodies detail



Falling Bodies



Detail photo



Detail photo



You either love it or you hate it, but it sure makes you think!