When you think ‘designer lighting,’ you think about the look, the shape, the colours; but the designers Jan Plechá? and Henry Wielgus thought further; they thought about the inner spark. They asked themselves the most vital question: what is light? And their designer lighting is this metaphor materialized – light hidden within the cage of the mind.
“Even though we live in different cultures, in different places surrounded by different societies, our inner energy is the same; always was and always will be. Sometimes, we might feel caged by society and its expectations, but when we concentrate on our inner energy, it can become a lantern that will open the door of this cage and set us free,” says one of the designers.
While the essence of light leads you to a vivid and “simple” life truth, the manufacturing is anything but simple. To create the reticulated surface, the glass must be blown into a special metal cage – literally. It is extremely difficult to create a perfect metal form that would let the glass flow in and out easily, but once the form is ready, it lasts for (almost) eternity. This piece is a challenge for glassblowers also in terms of its size. It is so heavy that blowing it stretches the limits of human ability. The blower must make five trips to pick up enough glass to finally blow the lighting.
When the lamp is finished, it forms an impressive, crystal-clear glass cage, where the inner light is hidden, yet not lost. Once switched on, its inner light shines outward. It is a symbol of the fact that if a person is brave enough to follow their inner light, no cage can contain them.
