Water Lamps

Arturo Erbsman won the 2nd prize at Salone Satellite Award 2014 with Atoms, from the Water Lamps series, that exhibits water as a prime material in different variations of its existence.

Water lamps' series, by young French designer Arturo Erbsman, exhibits water as a prime functional material in different variations of its existence. The delicacy of every distinct state of water, whether snow, icicle, condensation or vapour is explored across six projects, which reflect its inherent behaviour to metamorphose and transport through space and time.

In Pyrros the transparent liquid water alters our visual perception and increases the intensity of a candle light. As the indispensable component of a water clock, in Clepsydra, fluid water falls drop by drop revealing movements of light and passage of time. Snow Catcher highlights the opacity of water, as it unites infinite unique snowflakes to create a soft cottony suspension lamp.

When in Polar Light, water becomes solid and crystallises into icicles in its natural Boreal setting, it reinterprets a crystal Baroque chandelier. In Atmos (winner of the second prize of the Salone Satellite Award 2014), water reacts to its lighted confinement as it deconstructs into thousand shimmering beads of condensation before transforming back to liquid, to reflect the perpetual hydrologic cycle. Finally, Cumulus features water in a state so volatile that it flies in a constant loop, which makes it ethereal.