bethan laura wood: totem light + moon rock at nilafur gallery

bethan laura wood: totem light + moon rock at nilafur gallery
bethan laura wood at her nilafur gallery  installation
image © designboom

the habitat shows itself as a different planet, as a science-fictional landscape with bethan laura wood, a young english designer and formerly one of martino gamper‘s students. embellished by a contemporary and present-day interpretation of eighteenth-century ‘marqueterie’, her ‘moon rock tables’ scattered in space hold a series of light points made of transparent glass. lamps able to create, like ‘ziggurat’ or imaginary architectures, a glimpse of the moon, a skyline characterized by fascinating modular articulations, magical superimpositions of transparent shapes whose lightness recall air bubbles…

‘totem’
image © ruy teixeira

‘totem’ is a lighting collection which is a development of wood’s interest in layering and mixing different shapes, colors and textures to evoke connections with the viewer’s imagination. working together with artisan pietro viero, the each pieces is made from pyrex glass which is hand-blown into various volumes that are associated with the medical and chemistry industries illuminated by crown-mirrored bulbs. they are layered and locked together resulting in airy light that explores the translucency and thinness that is intrinsic to this type of glass. the overall dimensions of each ‘totem’ is 300mm to 1000mm (not including bulbs or cord) with a width of 240mm (not including bulbs). they come in a limited edition of 4 + 2 APs per design.

‘totem’
image © ruy teixeira

different variations of the ‘totem’ light
images © ruy teixeira

bethan laura wood’s conceptual sketches of ‘totem’ typologies
image © designboom

‘totem’ table lamp
image © designboom

‘moon rock’ tables
image © designboom

‘moon rock’ is a collection of tables which come as an extension of wood’s ‘super fake project. the laminated marquetry table tops executed in colored MDF with a powder coated steel structure. to be used individually or grouped together, they create a luna landscape, playing with the ambiguity of the natural environment. the series draws on the craters of the moon and the composition of the solar system. the furniture celebrates different qualities of standard laminates, treating them like rare wood veneers rather than cheap substitutes.

top view of a ‘moon rock’ table
image © designboom

detail of table surface
image © designboom

installation view
image © designboom

both ‘totem’ and ‘moon rock’ have been developed exclusively for milan’s nilafur gallery. they first debuted during milan design week 2011 and more recently were on show at design miami basel 2011.

close-up installation view at nilafur gallery
image © ruy teixeira