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”Stuart wants to see you.’
Well, in that case I’d better go and find him.
‘That’s good – you can’t miss it.’
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Its the day before the first day of LiGHT24 and I’ve dropped into BDC to have a meeting with one of the resident companies there – or, at least, that’s what my visitor pass said. The fact that the hall is full of friends and colleagues is neither here nor there. But why is Stuart Alexander – a designer – down from Stockport doing here so early? The answer – and true to form – is that Stuart is pushing boundaries again and providing what, for me, was the stand-out experience of the show.
Let’s take a look at what’s going on with mawa Design.
mawa Design asked Luke Artingstall and his creative team at Artin to produce a lighting concept for LiGHT24.
This is what they came up with. And there’s a nice little video at the end of this mawa LinkedIn page.
There’s probably a better way of putting a video in front of you,
but I can’t be arsed to work it out.
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I found LiGHT24 a difficult experience to get the measure of; three years ago, Paul James and his team put together an event of elegance and charm. Of course, we were fresh out of Covid lockdowns and, for most of us, it was the first in-person event that we’d attended, seemingly, for ever. By 2024, the exhibition has become the UK’s go-to lighting exhibition and its clearly drawing in an audience beyond our Brexit borders.
But this kind of popularity brings its own issues. If you listen carefully, you’ll hear the mutterings; the BDC isn’t big enough to accommodate the dreams and desires of the community; the wrong people are being allowed to exhibit; it’s all getting a bit same-y . . .
I’m not really sure what visitors (and some exhibitors) want. Are we like chicks in a nest expecting constantly to have fresh fodder dropped into our collective maw? Are we not sufficiently grown-up to accept that the entire lighting marketplace is rammed with versions of itself, whether round and in the ceiling, or long, thin and curly and stuck on the wall (or ceiling)?
Are we like the people of Erl, demanding of their king: ‘We would be ruled by a Magic Lord.’ – (and just see where that got them!)
(The King of Elfland’s Daughter – Lord Dunsany)
Sorry – that might be a bit random.
Like motor car design, there is an inevitability that product design seeps towards a commonality- a uniformity – a sameness. It means that we have to try harder to differentiate quality from less-than-quality. And in the real world of specification, that is a vitally important distinction. We must learn to seek the inner quality of products, not just the roundness, curliness, blinginess of a thing.
I understand from the LiGHT24 organisers that next year will see the show grow even further, into the Gallery Hall. Its a brave move to either concentrate – or isolate – a sector of the exhibitors away from the main hall. I hope it works because the alternative, which most of us are already dreading, is to move the show out of BDC altogether. But to where, we ask; if the intention is to keep the show in London? We all know the alternatives in the Great Wen and we don’t like any of them.
Anyway – enough muttering and mimbling: I’m here to celebrate the best fun in the show – among many places redolent in quality and elegance – these guys simply had the best control panel that I have EVER SEEN – and a lunatic piece of light art that took the breath (and the ears) away.
So chapeau to Mawa – though maybe that should be ‘Hut Ab‘.
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Wind it up to 11, my friends.
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