antoinette bader: laceslamp

‘laceslamp’ by antoinette bader at vienna design week 2010 image © designboom

for the event of this year’s vienna design week, swiss designer antoinette bader has created a chandelier constructed out of hundreds of yards of shoelaces. ‘laceslamp’, showcased as a part of a feature program called passionsweg, is a multi-tiered, voluminous object that intertwines tobby® band shoelaces between structural rings. the resulting chandelier causes a distinct shadow play and effect on the exhibition space, which is the old showroom of ‘exquisit kristall’, a former crystal chandelier shop in vienna.

the premise of the ‘passionswege’ program is to pair together designers with vienna-based shops and manufacturers to create an installation that is site specific and responsive to the local and already present conditions. for ‘laceslamp’, bader collaborated with rudolf scheer und söhne, makers of custom shoes and former imperial and royal suppliers, to create an appropriate design for the showroom, now the property of the shoe store. the material of the design–shoelaces–coupled with the form and function of the object–a chandelier–serves to respond to both elements that define the site.

(left) antoinette bader in the exhibition space portrait © designboom (right) detail shots of chandelier

the exhibit also features smaller light pieces, also constructed out of the viennese shoelace.

other exhibited lamps image © designboom

image © designbm

hanging lamps image © designboom

image courtesy antoinette bader

image courtesy antoinette bader

(left) interior of scheer shoe store (right) signage outside images © designboom

street facade of scheer image © peter rigaud image courtesy scheer

(left) production shot (right) markus scheer, grandson of the founder images © peter rigaud images courtesy scheer