lucas maassen: valerie, my crystal sister for roche

‘valerie, my crystal sister’ by lucas maassen for roche crystallized synthetic DNA fragments all images courtesy of lucas maassen

dutch designer lucas maassen has developed ‘valerie, my crystal sister’ together with roche for the confrontations exhibition at vitra design museum. the concept is a chandelier, an outcome of researching over several months whether an object can be fabricated through the same biological process as the creation of human life. the lighting piece is composed of a magnified representation of one thousand crystallized synthetic DNA fragments (as the real thing would need to be seen under a microscope).

1000 synthetic crystallized DNA fragments 

the story of the project extends personally to the designer as he never had a sister due to the marriage of his parents ending too soon. thinking of her, he named the project what his mother and father would have called him had he been born a girl. the glittering sculpture was itself assembled by his parents in a performance.

the sculpture was assembled by the designer’s parents

the crystals are a magnified version of the real molecule

the designer’s mother

the real DNA fragment under a microscope

the designer’s parents when they were younger

a story about the project, shown at an exhibition by vitra design museum video by lucas maassen + mike roelofs

background information on the project video courtesy of robert anderson