Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Sitting the Light Fantastic



A couple of weeks ago I put up a link to the Geffrye museum's Christmas exhibition. This week however I want to tell you about their exhibition called Sitting the Light Fantastic, an installation designed by Kei Ito.

The exhibit is part of museumaker, a nationwide project in England where contemporary designers partner with one of 16 museums to create an exhibit that takes into account the museum's site and heritage collections.

Kei Ito is an interesting designer to be chosen for the particular museum as she has mainly worked in a textile world creating costumes for fashion and dance, has her own couture business and also an accessories line Always Sky Above.

This exhibition is a departure for her, as she has created a light instillation in the front gardens of the Geffrye. As a nod to the Geffrye's focus on living rooms in England the lights are all designed as chairs, indoor lamps, birdhouses and woven fiber optic designs. From dusk till dawn through the winter you will be able to see her work in front of the museum. If you miss it however, don't fret, it looks like it will be back next autumn as well!

The most intriguing part of this exhibition to me is that she is weaving patterns into her fiber optic pieces that are inspired by the textiles in the Geffrye. Unfortunately you can't really see any of the pieces that close in the pictures, but you can still see the ghostly quality of the lights.

Definitely check out the museumaker site to see what other projects are going on..

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