Not that there was anything wrong with the Schonbek chandelier. Tobias Wong just enjoys working with cultural icons.
Wong coats crystal chandeliers with white rubber, and dips pearls in black rubber. He creates diamond rings with the diamonds hidden inside. He’s been breaking all the rules of art and design ever since his debut a few short years ago.
His newest experiment with the crystal chandelier appears in an exhibit called “Design Life Now” at:
Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum
2 East 91st Street, New York, NY
December 8, 2006-July 29, 2007
Institute of Contemporary Art
100 Northern Avenue, Boston, MA
September 28, 2007-January 6, 2008
Contemporary Arts Museum
5216 Montrose Boulevard, Houston, TX
January 26-April 20, 2008
The crystal chandelier Wong chose to work with is a Schonbek design called New Orleans. Wong adapted it by cutting off the top and hiding most of the chandelier inside a giant black shade.
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Paraconceptual artist, avant-garde designer, or art world bad boy, Tobias Wong is hard to define. He’s refreshingly uninterested in originality. “My work derives from the past,” he says. “There’s no such thing as original work. Everything is derivative.”
Nonetheless, Wong’s shaded crystal chandelier, commissioned by Swarovski®, is a highly original take on a classic form. Wong regrets that most crystal chandeliers are hung high “so you don’t see the beautiful details.” He’s brought his chandelier exploration down to table level. But the observer has to get involved to appreciate it. Since only a few crystal pendants dangle within view, she or he needs to peer under the shade to see the profusion of prismatic crystal displayed by the chandelier.
“The shade is black on the inside, too,” Wong points out. “So the crystal really looks great in there.”
Wong’s idea is to preserve tradition by giving it a new context. He invites his audience to rediscover the crystal chandelier.
This is not the first time a Schonbek crystal chandelier has found its way into a museum. See Schonbek chandeliers in The Newark Museum.
See press release on Tobias Wong crystal chandelier |
