You think of Texas, its landscape, the term ‘big sky’, and you think jeeps, pitchforks and manliness… lots of manliness, big strong manliness, tobacco chewing manliness. Well, I do, but then I’m a man – I’m not the grunting, hay bail shifting type, and I’ve never worn dungarees, but I do like a cold beer. Maybe that informs your vision, Johanna Grawunder‘s interpretation of America’s big sky is altogether more romantic, the Milan and San Francisco-based designer/architect sees elegance and exquisiteness in the American machismo.
Sure, there’s a lot of pretentiousness in talking about objects with such fancifulness, but Grawunder’s part-lighting/part-artwork creations have a genuine ethereal quality; they can be as alluring as the landscapes she pronounces as their inspiration. The collection, currently showing at Paris’ Carpenters Workshop Gallery, is a series of compelling architectural lighting works, that toy imaginatively with light. “Light is architecture’s muse” says the designer and, as it mirrors, reflects, and escapes through cracks from these geometric objects, you’d be inclined to agree.
Johanna Grawunder; Big Sky runs at Paris’ Carpenters Workshop Gallery ’til 31st July
Exhibition View
Courtesy of Carpenters Workshop Gallery
Exhibition View
Courtesy of Carpenters Workshop Gallery
Exhibition View
Courtesy of Carpenters Workshop Gallery
F-Box, 2012,
Wood, steel, fluorescent tubes
Courtesy of Carpenters Workshop Gallery
Exhibition View
Courtesy of Carpenters Workshop Gallery
Exhibition View
Courtesy of Carpenters Workshop Gallery
Exhibition View
Courtesy of Carpenters Workshop Gallery
Prism, 2012,
Welded steel, LED Light
Courtesy of Carpenters Workshop Gallery
