A hundred lights from 110 designers softly illuminate the warehouse-style venue of Meat Market Stables in North Melbourne, kicking off Melbourne Design Week 2025 with innovation, elegance and sophistication.
Curating a show with multiple light sources is no easy feat – let alone 100 of them – but exhibition presenter Friends and Associates has done an incredibly job at situating each piece within their own aura, as well as crafting a coherent walkthrough experience across the three gallery spaces.
This blend of the hand-crafted and the industrial is reflected in many lights on display, and the interaction between different pieces are oftentimes intentional and playful.
Highlights for this reviewer include the intricate ceramic Flow State Lamp by Tantri Mustika, featuring iridescent Baroque pearls circling the lamp shade; Foolscape Studio’s Cullet, in collaboration with glass artist Liam Fleming, and The Fragility of Things by Bel Williams, an aesthetically clean light with a philosophical idea.
Jay Jermyn’s Guardian Sitael and Jonathan Ben-Tovim’s Toyo Lamp look like they belong in a fantasy realm of sci-fi and folklore. The latter uses a car’s headlamp as its light source, paying tribute to the Toio Floor Lamp (1962) by Italian design pioneers Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni.
Another piece inspired by an iconic historic reference is Nysa Rohatgi’s Pothos Lamp, its green shade and S-shaped neck paying homage to Harrison D McFaddin’s Banker’s Lamp (1909). Instead of a lamp built with the vision of industrial productivity, Rohatgi’s version celebrates the organic, with the shade appearing like a large lush leaf.
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On the other hand, Studio Bolaji Teniola’s Athos Lamp also derives inspiration from nature, this time in its material composition. The piece comprises two cylinder shapes attached in a ‘T’ shape, each consisting layers of American Black Walnut timber shavings – a waste off-cut that is oftentimes discarded.
Mentioned are just some of the most intriguing works in 100 Lights, and the exhibition has plenty more to offer.
100 Lights is on view at Meat Market Stables, North Melbourne until 18 May; free.
