Taking light to the outer limits new exhibition Light in Motion pushes the boundaries of lighting design and technology.
Blurring the boundaries between art and design, Light in Motion brings together works by a group of innovative and imaginative artists, designers, creative technologists and engineers. Many designers featured include previous members of leading contemporary art and design studios working with technology. These include Conrad Shawcross, Marshmallow Laser Feast, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Random International, DRIFT, Studio Swine and TROIKA.
The exhibition running from 13 – 22 September 2024 is the first of its kind in the UK and is hosted by London-based multidisciplinary studio Acrylicize at The Art House, the newest addition to Shoreditch Design Triangle as part of London Design Festival 2024.
Having designed and installed projects exhibited in leading museums and galleries worldwide for over a decade, some studios have developed independent practices in parallel, for others Light in Motion is the first exhibition of their own work. Designers and artists featured are; Duncan Carter, Kai Lab, Heyl & Van Dam, Maria Vera, Relative Distance, Sophie Mei Birkin, Star Holden, Will Laslett and Will Muir Llia.
The group has emerged from an ongoing series of studio visits, artists workshops and creative conversations initiated by Kai Lab. Part of a community of designers and artists working with contemporary materials and cutting edge technologies, the exhibition represents a snapshot of one of London’s most vibrant and innovative art and design communities.
In the exhibition, light is both medium and subject. Light is thrown around the space, reflected or emitted, used to clarify or distort. Evocative natural elements are in contrast with the rational technological modes of display.
Works featured in the exhibition
Duncan Carter: 10,000 Tiny Suns is a one of a series of light sculptures from the project Generative Optics, which sees Carter push the capabilities of lenses, using a light as a medium to sketch a pointillist composition. Inspired by the possibilities enabled by 3D printed lenses, Carter uses optimization algorithms and custom tools to design lens geometries that form images.
KAI LAB: CMYK Searchspace is a colour synthesizer and contemporary light. By turning any combination of the four dials the user can search through a possible 16,000 colours to select the perfect illumination and hue to suit their mood and environment. Evoking design features of a vintage radio, CMYK Searchspace explores an evolving spectrum of colour and emits a flawlessly consistent light.
Heyl Van Dam: Cosmobloom is a handmade kinetic sculpture, which responds interactively to its audience. In harmonic motion it reflects light and colour while transitioning between states of closed and secure to open and vulnerable. A futuristic bloom, it moves reflections and light through the venue space in perpetual motion.
Maria Vera: Light Cycles is a constellation of kinetic sculptures of light and colour that use refraction to transcend the physical materials at its core. Each piece is a unique constellation of translucent materials and light that constantly evolves and moves as the light and shadows dance around one another, never repeating.
Relative Distance: Phase is a longform timepiece and lunar light which synchronises with the waxing and waning of the moon in the night sky in real time. Phase encapsulates the moon’s ethereal qualities in a thoughtfully detailed object. Every element is conceived in relation to the moon, from materials choices to behaviour. It is the first work from Relative Distance.
Sophie Mei Birkin: Biomatter Submersion is a series of illuminated membranes of biomatter. The works explore material transformation and interaction and take inspiration from places where organic matter grows, passes through or settles in relation to water. The suspended foraged biomatter is fixed in bio-resin, held in a moment of time, while speaking to the afterlife of materials and how matter flows into larger collective bodies of water.
Star Holden: Planetesimal, is a sculptural piece in steel and plaster which imagines witnessing the movement of light and shadow across an asteroid. Surface topography data gathered by instruments onboard NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft in 2012 is mechanically sculpted into a primitive surface, while hundreds of individual lights hidden within the artwork orchestrate shadows revealing millions of years of impact events.
Will Laslett: Falling Light is a kinetic light work drawing from notions of emergent complexity in natural systems. Inspired by the behaviour of sunlight falling through the foliage of trees, the effect of sequential layers of foliage is to create a complexity in its dappled light far greater than a simple and crisp two dimensional shadow. In Falling Light a light source moves with a structure combining the natural inspiration and artificial world we inhabit.
Will Muir Llia: Sea of Segments is a wall mounted display showing water cascading across seven-segment displays. Footage of flowing streams, crashing seas and glistening lakes washes over the screen. Rich tonal variation contrasts with the harsh simplicity of the display. The complexity of nature is simply translated in its raw, unedited form.