Swarovski has pulled out all stops for this month's Crystal Palace, calling in five design world heavyweights to create a series of one-off installations for Milan's Salone del Mobile.
Drawing on Swarovski crystal for inspiration, Tokujin Yoshioka, Gwenaël Nicolas, Yves Béhar, Rogier van der Heide and Vincent van Duysen have each been commissioned to come up with a crystalline reinterpretation of the traditional chandelier, as Nadja Swarovski says: 'Our designer collaborations not only push the boundaries of the designers' own work but also of the use of Swarovski crystal in an artistic, decorative and functional way.'
Curated by the Wapping Project's very own Jules Wright - whose background in theatre has no doubt informed her Crystal Palace concept -- the show features a series of rooms, in which visitors will find each designer's work ensconced within various palatial backdrops.
Each of the rooms have been inspired by palaces from around the globe, including Versailles and its hall of mirrors, the Winter Palace in St Petersburg and Tokyo's Imperial palace. The final room of the exhibition will feature a special exhibition, in celebration of some of the most innovative Crystal Palace concepts from the past eight years.
To learn more about the designers, curator and this month's Crystal Palace commissions see the links below.
’Sparks’ by Gwenaël Nicolas. The string of Swarovski crystals has been designed to emit occasional sparks of light, from LED’s embedded within.
’Sparks’ by Gwenaël Nicolas.
’Dream Cloud’ by Rogier van der Heide. The installation features a cluster of thousands of tiny crystals suspended above the ground. The crystals are then illuminated by ’narrow beams of moonlight’.
’Frost’ by Vincent van Duysen. The installation features a series of modular ’beams’ consisting of LED lights encased within thin glass panels.
’Amplify’ by Yves Béhar. The Installation consists of a series of gem-shaped paper lanterns, each of which contain one real crystal, designed to refract light against the surface of the paper.
’Amplify’ by Yves Béhar. The lanterns are produced using little more than a sheet of recyclable paper, one crystal and one low-energy consuming LED light.
’Amplify’ by Yves Béhar.
’Stellar’ by Tokujin Yoshioka. The installation consists of two parts, the first, a one-meter diameter globe encrusted with Swarovski crystals, lit from within. The second element consists of another globe within a tank, upon which crystals will naturally grow.
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