Based in Vancouver, Arbel invents processes that generate novel forms. We found these shapes interesting and began a set of experiments meant to encourage and accelerate the process of accretion. Omer Arbel is a multidisciplinary artist and designer, and co-founder of Canadian design and manufacturing company Bocci.
We observed that over many years of use, small “blooms” of metal with distinctive form accrete on the tips of these hooks. An electrical current is passed through the hook and part into the solution, which causes an electromagnetic field to form around the metal part, in turn causing molecules of the metal inside the solution to coat the suspended metal part. Conventionally electroplated metal parts are suspended within an electroplating solution containing molecules of a different metal using hooks. The experiments that led to 71 began with an observation during a visit to an electroplating facility. Can you tell us about your most memorable experiment and the project that resulted from it? You’ve experimented with so many materials across the years. Sculptor Omer Arbel, who, when not busy with his personal projects, is the brains behind design-forward lighting manufacturer Bocci, brought in chemists to reformulate the substance and master. See also: Mood Board: David Rockwell on Designing the Oscars 2021 Set and Other Spaces During the Pandemic After that our process is conventional we essentially try to rope our discovery into the real world with the conventional tools at our disposal.” During this initial phase, we are like prospectors sifting for new forms. This process usually leads to what I call a ‘discovery’, a form that we find compelling, mysterious, and worthwhile. It’s something I don’t think will even happen again in my life.
It’s a great honor, Arbel told The Jerusalem Post. “We try to invent new ways of working with these material properties such that they yield new, unpredictable forms. The winner was Jerusalem-born designer Omer Arbel. “Generally, we begin (the design process) with a certain physical, mechanical or chemical property of whatever material we are working with,” Arbel explains. What distinguishes Arbel's work from many other experimental, process-based approaches in the design industry: With Bocci, he has succeeded in building an internationally successful company and producing unique luminaires in large numbers - without the individual pieces losing the charm of the handmade.Īnd for that he even fetches lightning bolts from the sky.Unlike other designers who might prefer starting their projects with an initial vision or a sketch and a prototype, Vancouver-based multidisciplinary artist and designer Omer Arbel prefers to dive right in and start directly from what he deems the core of the craft: experimenting with materials. He and his team try out certain manufacturing processes and materials until the result is convincing.Īnd that can take a long time: With the new pendant luminaire, a whole twelve years from the first idea to the finished product. “I design the process, not the form,” says Omer Arbel of his method. When they have cooled down, the clusters are cut open, sandblasted and fitted with LED light sources. Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. The glowing hot bubbles merge into an irregular cluster: a unique piece that looks a little different every time. In order to produce the lamp bodies, several glassmakers in the company's workshop simultaneously pick up a glass bubble with their pipe and hit them against each other. Omer Arbel harnesses the forces of nature to design objects and lights made of glass, metal or wax.Īs is the case with the new “100” pendant luminaire collection that Bocci is presenting at the Salone del Mobile 2021 in Milan. What sounds a bit like the experiment of a cranky professor is typical for the architect and co-founder of the Bocci lighting brand from Vancouver. “The lightning leaves its signature,” says Arbel. In a prepared container there is a mixture of mineral and metallic powders that are melted into bizarre structures by lightning. Based between Vancouver and Berlin, Omer Arbel cultivates a fluid position between the fields of building, sculpture, invention, and design. If lightning actually strikes the bait, electrical energy flows through the cable to earth. Omer Arbel Office is the creative hub of a constellation of companies Bocci among them structured to realize ideas of varying scale and across a wide spectrum of contexts and environments. Omer Arbel has recently caught lightning bolts: the Canadian designer has spears shot into the sky on a long cable during a thunderstorm.
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