Design Storytelling

This incredible LED chandelier was my favourite work from the Art + Design London show that’s on in Berkeley Square this week, running alongside Frieze.

This year there was a dearth of interesting contemporary work in the Art + Design Pavilion, it’s mostly filled with beautiful 20th Century art works. But there’s always a real gem or two to be found in there.

The Fragile Future dandelion head lights by Ralph Nauta and Lonneke Gordijn were the stand out works of the show and were quite rightly awarded the Moet Hennessy Prize 2010.

I first saw the Nauta + Lonneke’s LED Fragile Future lights at the wonderful In Praise of Shadows exhibition at the V+A last year, curated by Jane Withers. It’s brilliant to see them developing this idea into new forms.

The LED lights placed at the centre of the dandelion heads seem quite magical. At first it seems to be a sort of visual trick, but then you realise they are really real. The mind boggles imagining the intricacies involved in pulling these structures off.

The conjunction of the heavy concrete block in amongst the incredibly fragile dandelion heads creates a particularly powerful image of the imminent damage and destruction of these incredibly delicate forms, as well as a rather beautiful visual analogy of environmental destruction.