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Nine playful lighting designs from the 2020 Collectible fair

Nine playful lighting designs from Collectible 2020

Quirky and experimental lights were among the standout designs from this year's Collectible design fair in Brussels. Anna Winston selects her favourites.

This year, many galleries at Collectible showcased playful lighting designs, targeting collectors who are looking for functional, unique objects that don't represent a large commitment in terms of wall or floor space.

"In the design world, seating and lighting are the most covetable pieces," said Husk gallery founder Chloé Valette.

The design fair, which is dedicated to contemporary, limited-edition and one-off designs, took place this year from 5-8 March, and saw brightly coloured lamps made to look like bubblegum and impasto paintings.

Read on for 10 characterful lighting highlights from the event:


Nine playful lighting designs from the 2020 Collectible fair

Foam orange lamp by Joseph Algieri

New York-based Joseph Algieri makes lighting using clay and expandable foam. This brightly pigmented lamp consists of polyurethane foam, which has solidified as it drips down to create a blobby cone.

With a large, exposed bulb on top and smaller bulbs protruding from its sides, the end effect is intentionally comedic.


Nine playful lighting designs from the 2020 Collectible fair

Fold Lamp by Maria Tyakina

Made using manual labour instead of machine manufacturing, Maria Tyakina's Fold Lamps express the invisible forces of tension and compression that are created by folding a single, very thin sheet of steel to create a surprisingly strong structure.


Trashformers light by Savvas Laz

This giant two-metre-tall green floor lamp is part of an ongoing series of work made from trash.

Athens-based Savvas Laz wanders the streets of his city, picking up discarded packaging foam – usually from electrical appliances – before piecing it together to create new shapes.

These forms are then coated in fibreglass, powder, water-based resin and pigments to give it a new function.


Rainbow lamp by HAHA Studio

Just five of these lights were made by Sweden's HAHA Studio as part of the new limited-edition Arcade project from Relay Design Agency.

Each one is made from a gently bent tube of oxidised metal, with the final rainbow-like colour created by hand-heating, grinding and polishing each piece. Two opaque, white glass orbs fill each end of the tube, which sits on a small, round base.


Lamp TB-001, 002 and 003 by Nicolas Erauw

Small but surprisingly heavy, each of these lamps is cast from solid metal using a technique developed by Belgian designer Nicolas Erauw, which uses lost-wax casting and a dipping process that is similar to the technique used for making candles.


Bubblegum 2019 by Studio Job

Modelled on Studio Job founder Job Smeets' partner Rebecca Sharkey, the Bubblegum 2019 wall light features a polished, cast-bronze base shaped like a mouth blowing a hand-blown, pink glass bubble.

Inside the bubble is an LED bulb that grants the lamp its soft glow. The light is produced in a limited edition of eight.


Baracche by Paolo Gonzato

Created exclusively for Milan's Camp Design Gallery by Italian designer Paolo Gonzato, each Baracche light is made from sheets of glass that are formed by floating the molten material over metal – known as Float Glass.

This process is used to create a shape informed by the "instantaneous architecture" of discarded construction waste found by roadsides.

The glass forms are mounted to the wall using pieces of metal reinforcing bar (rebar), commonly used for building.


Speckle Lamps by Hannah Bigeleisen

Originally an artist, Hannah Bigeleisen used theories of perception and repetition and an unusual approach to materials to shape her work.

Although the postmodern shapes of the Speckle Lamps look like they should be made from stone, they are actually constructed from lacquered papier-mache, with brushed brass components and shades made from hand-knotted fringe.


Neon by Johan Destrumelle

Young French designer Johan Destrumelle creates objects "like a pastry cook", layering up dots of concrete by hand to form objects that attempt to translate the painting techniques of Pointillism into three-dimensional volumes.

His Neon light uses pale pink-and blue-dyed concrete, responding to the colours of neon lighting from Japan.