THE MEANING OF LIGHT and LAMP
on verner p. and louis p. and the panthella + party ephemera reveal
Dear Readers,
We’re a day late, but we’re still on a comedown from Thursday + the weekend. LET US DIVULGE:
We had a VERY FUN (in our humb. opinion) bday party for VERNER PANTON’s woulda-been 100th, along with super pals over at Louis Poulsen. Everyone has been having these totally-polite dinners for him, but like, the guy was basically doing plastic-psychedelic mega interiors in denm*rk when everyone else was still in a blonde woods phase (which they still haven’t shaken).
So, we wanted something else. Like, some fun, mainly. A big f*cking cake, and in lieu of a disco ball, we wrote ONE HUNDRED APHORISMS about décor and self, radicalism, totality, Verner P., color, light, et cetera.
They are down below.
Much as the Panthella (a lamp which we partied for) is a total classic, we also think classics are such - at times, in in particular in this case - because they can withstand, endure, et cetera. They can survive with you through the f*ckery of life.
So we sort of Yayoi K.-Obliteration approached ‘em. Before and after of Pre party and After party and everyone’s attempt to disrupt how sort of singular this lamp is. And, it’s unsuccessful or like actually we think they sort of look better?
ADAPTABILITY!!!! So key to what people call “timelessness” - which is phenomenally misused. (As if we ALSO don’t like things that date — like can’t you TELL that Restaurant Varna is 1971-ish?! And isn’t that sort of what is so f*cking compelling about it now, is that not only was it wacky-Total-acidtrip, it was also A MOMENT! A moment has a philosophy within it.)
was a fun time
ok but before we give u 100 little philosophies, we must point to more of the vibe. which we got FOR SCALE super-star graphics crew (studio lowrie) to whip up:
(L) BALLOON and (R) teeny pocket aphorisms book (want one?????????)
and also (L) cake by mina p. of ninety.9 and (R) projected aphorism
these were the sticker sets… will email paid subs with a link to buy limited # of ‘em:
ONE
HUNDRED
APHORISMS
COLOR, quite famously, is WONDERFULLY SUBJECTIVE. Some are blind to it. But also, Color is also WONDERFULLY CONTEXTUAL, and can f*cked around by ALTITUDE, NOISE, ONE’S MEDICATION, ONE’S MOOD. (These are facts of science!) When determining your FAVORITE COLOR, be flexible: allow the whirligig whims of your own mind; don’t be so arrogant as to believe that the world around you, moment to moment, does nothing to you.
To “GIVE COLOR” is to add flourish, depth. COLOR IS DIMENSION. And, it knows it.
In complete darkness, COLOR is not perceived – but it DOES exist as a POTENTIAL. Potential is molecular! And don’t you forget it.
To quote (a translated) MICHEL FOUCAULT: “EXISTENCE PRECEDES ESSENCE.” That RED is REVOLUTIONARY, that WHITE is SUBLIME – these we assign. And you should feel free to re-assign.
“THE WINE-DARK SEA”, the immortal words of Poet sovereign HOMER. His was a COLOR-WORLD that had no “BLUE”; i.e. of BLUE he never spoke. DO WE SEE, BUT NOT NAME? Or, is what we cannot name invisible?
THERE IS AN EVOLUTION of COLOR, talk-wise, ‘over time’-wise. All languages begin with words for WHITE and BLACK. When next a color is named, historically it has been RED. Then green or yellow. Among the last, grey. “A GREY AREA” to us, therefore, is very truly about HAVING SEEN IT ALL.
COLOR cannot be TOUCHED.
COLOR cannot be TOUCHED? But a rule always has sort-of-exceptions: there is the synesthete, who might also or instead know the TASTE of purple.
Would rose by any other name appear as sweet?
GAZE at THE POLISHED-REFLECTIVE “METALLIC”. To speak the words of W.H. AUDEN: “All we are not stares back at what we are.”
CONTRAST is more memorable than PRECISION, in COLOR and elsewhere.
COLOR CHANGES YOU! It is tuned to your nervous system, how else could a color “EXCITE” you?
The brain’s neurons appreciate color, but they do it Relationally not Absolutely. BLUE exists not as “BLUE” but as “BLUER THAN”. You, too, are not Absolute! You, too, are only How You Relate. Best is only BETTER THAN.
Appreciate your instinct. COLOR = FEELING. You don’t need language for it.
What is “NEUTRALITY”? Beige, gray – we are trained to see them as such. Just as we are trained to tolerate only a “A POP” of color, for fear of being TOO LOUD or possibly even “TACKY” – this is baggage of HISTORY. Chromophobia has arrived to us care of many twisting, regrettable turns.
We all tolerate contradictions and complexities. Red is love AND violence. Black is elegance AND death.
We say we are “colored by our experience”, but what you call “EXPERIENCE” is embodied social structure masquerading as “personal”. (But, then again, “personal” is all we have or can know.)
“IN LIVING COLOR” is because COLOR is presence.
As you read, remember that it is color that makes these words legible.
Behind color, beyond the digital, is PIGMENT. Pigment is OCCURENCES, EXTRACTIONS, RESIDUES – a red from crushed cochineal beetles (we call it ‘CARMINE’), a brown tree bark thanks to a ton of fungus. Color is thanks to what these things absorb or let go, what wavelengths of light they keep for themselves or send back into the world. We (you and I) operate much like this.
“CONTEMPORARY” simply means to bring something together with THE PRESENT. It needn’t be new.
“TIMELESS” is faux-universal: like, timeless for whom? (DECIDE FOR YOURSELF WHAT DEFIES TIME.)
LONG-LASTINGness is not just about durability, it is not just about ‘a look’. It is ENDURING PERSONAL CONNECTION and also ADAPTABILITY. It is claimed that “Timeless” will last through anything. Instead, “Longevity” only asks: will it last through you?
(i) Trend = when the APPEAL of thing is intended as temporary
(ii) Disposability = when the QUALITY of the thing is intended as temporary
(iii) Evolution = (the complicated, exciting one!) when the CONTEXT of the thing is changed, and it is able to adapt.
We should not mold ourselves against an aesthetic we are told is superior because it will outlive us – décor is for you, of this moment.
VERNER SAYS: “One sits more comfortably on a color that one likes.”
REVOLUTION (at last in décor; at least to VERNER P., to put words in his mouth) should be SENSORY
A personal Verner P. objective was not to simply to create SPACE but to force you TO IMAGINE – and imagine we must!
NEUTRALITY in décor is IMPOSSIBLE.
Verner P. is PERSEVERANCE.
Verner P. is COMMITMENT.
Verner P. imagined a décor which we could inhabit on MULTIPLE LEVELS, physically-speaking. To sit below, or above – to embrace verticality, to occupy the entirety of space. To this end he embraced a sense of TOTAL HARMONY, he attempted to ELIMINATE THE CORNER (visually-speaking), his light mastered REFLECTION and AMBIENCE.
Far from riding a wave of the times, it is Verner P.’s utter REFUSAL to acquiesce to TREND that lends to his work its lingering gravitas. It is décor of INTEGRITY.
Together, the décor works of Verner P. are PSYCHEDELIC, and to some even possibly ‘excessive’ – he rejected ‘minimalism’. And YET, taken piece by piece, ULTRA-SIMPLICITY is a thread that ties together his oeuvre.
Critics would tell Verner P. that his work would not age well – but what is “TIMELESSNESS” other than an enduring resonance and, dare we say, continued relevance? “Date poorly” his work has not, but WHAT WE MUST RESURRECT is the DEFIANT SPIRIT through which it was born.
No environment is INCOMPLETE (an impossibility, if one thinks about it!), and yet how is it that some are also definitely MORE COMPLETE, more TOTAL?
Décor is not ALL or NOTHING – but “ALL” can do so much: to be dimensional and many, but also single and one.
TOTALITY in décor is highly INWARD (it is best as an expression of singularly YOU) but is equally an EXPLOSIVE EXPANSION of “one” thing that is duly imposed onto everything.
“TOTAL” is to allow oneself and one’s décor to dissolve into “AURA”.
What we get from a décor space that is top-to-bottom, harmoniously and completely singular – with perhaps much detail and nuance within it – is really a return to the WOMB. A return to the comfort of a warm monochromatic encompassing sense of NO DECISIONS, NO TIME, NO THREATS.
“TREND” EXHAUSTS us, it does not IMPROVE us. The only escape is TO DO ONE’S OWN THING, which always has been somewhat of a radical act.
To make the FANTASTICAL, the EXPLORATORY a part of the ‘every day’ is a GIFT that one rarely ever gifts themselves. One should, however.
TO EXPAND (yourself; your work) you must have an EPISTEMIC CURIOSITY, i.e. you must SEEK OUT and not just be fed.
True radicalism is by nature super duper OPTIMISTIC, as much as it is also about CHALLENGE and is CHALLENGING. Even if one approaches a desire for change with a sort of ‘FURY FOR HOW THINGS ARE’ because they aren’t good enough, it is with a belief in the possibility of ACHIEVING change, so much so that one then chooses to ENGAGE, facing – at least at first, sometimes always – the ridicule of the establishment.
RADICALISM at its core is about REJECTION – rejection of a hegemonic taste, set of values, way of operating. So, far from simply “strange newness”, it is critical commentary. We often loose sight of this.
Our habitat is a medium of expression.
Décor should not communicate “YOUR TASTE”, it should communicate YOU.
IN APPROACHING DÉCOR, one should feel attachment and agency. One should feel freedom, but be celebratory of one’s own parameters.
You can’t have anyone give you taste; you must find it yourself.
TASTE IS ACCUMULATION. Not of things, though. Of references, yes.
Light is our ACCESS POINT to one fifth of our senses.
To ILLUMINATE is to bring definition, is to begin to KNOW, is to focus. It is not divine, is it is COGNITIVE.
LIGHT IS NEVER PASSIVE – it directs us, our attention, our vision; it may lead us towards something. GO TOWARDS THE LIGHT, they say! And, we do.
Light conditions = experience. IN OTHER WORDS: the same space under shifting illumination is not merely seen differently, it is INHABITED DIFFERENTLY.
The décorworld has an obsession with “the CHAIR” as the archetypal output of a designer; but we suggest skill be measured against success in “LAMP” – an object that must work in two modes, OFF and ON; DARK and LIGHT.
– this is because a lamp shatters the notion of LIGHT versus DARK, in fact. It is among very very few décor objects that doesn’t (necessarily) disappear into the dark.
The appeal of LIGHT is inseparable from its ability to SHOW US FORM.
To go TOWARDS THE LIGHT is to ascend, to pass into a new consciousness, to escape the corporeal – so to surround yourself with a light that you love is to invite in the better parts of that once-in-a-lifetime experience.
What LIGHT does to décor – natural and artificial alike – is the opposite of “FOUNDATION”, it is the ultimate final detail that can determine whether all other choices, arrangements, et cetera look good or look like utter sh*t.
‘THE SPEED OF LIGHT’ has little to do with our experience of its speed. We think of light as the fastest, but we also know that it can creep as it can also linger. Light is best when it’s thick, soupy, and slow.
LIGHT is not necessarily a force of HONESTY.
– but, to be a BEACON OF LIGHT is almost always about honesty.
The things of light are those of life: INTENSITY and DIRECTION.
Light will always fill the space it is given.
There are words from the world of painting that we rarely, if ever, possibly never use in the world of décor – Why are we really so afraid to live like art? Tenebristic light, the high-contrast dark-moodiness of Caravaggio; chiaroscuro, a soft-smooth darkness-and-light; sfumato, and its contrast-blurriness. We seek to achieve DÉCOR AS ART.
Just as daylight is, for most, a marker of seasons, then by extension our need for the artificial is too. The lamp will know it’s summer, fall, winter, spring.
LIGHT cannot be TOUCHED.
Thank you to RODS and CONES, the physiology that opens this world of LIGHT, and color, up to us.
LIGHT can EXTEND ACTIVITY.
LIGHT can STRUCTURE TIME.
FORM is the BODY LANGUAGE of an object.
FORM, like us, is as much about what the space it TAKES UP as much as that which it does NOT – its negative space, its bits of emptiness, what’s been left within it for something else to occupy, et cetera. We often only think to look at the WHAT IS, not at the NOT.
FORM can PERFORM – to tap to illuminate, to flick a switch, to pull a door closed.
FORM is INTERRUPTION – it stands in the way of you, of light, of cold winds, of cell service.
For a FORM to be FUNCTIONAL, it doesn’t need to do much. But a big, big, undeniable part of FUNCTION is whether you can stand being around something – how ‘useful’ is something that repulses you? Equally, if you like being around it, the pressure is off for it to accomplish anything at all, really.
FORM can’t always be made to FIT, and that’s just its cross to bear.
FORM INSTRUCTS.
– and, FORM ANTICIPATES.
FORM is doesn’t just stop at its own edges, it begs for ARRANGEMENT – it seeks relationships. Atop, beside, behind, below.
FORM asks to be touched, asks to be looked at.
A very fine form suggests maybe dumb luck, but more likely TRIAL AND ERROR. Something we rarely consider as part of a Thing’s lifespan.
The beauty of FORM is how it might age, or how we might personalize it – the latter is truly the beautiful phenomenon of “ADAPTATION”, the way we add to something, rearrange something, bend it into accommodating us in some way.
What if something breaks? Is the FORM “incomplete”?
MUSCLE MEMORY is borne of form-you-know, it’s an incredible marriage of a BODY’s desire to do one thing or another and the subtle ways a Thing asks to be done to, specifically.
USE of a Thing is an INTIMACY – it was made for your hand, your arms, your eyes.
– and you should care about the things you’re intimate with.
What something LOOKS LIKE is its ARCHETYPE – it is LAMP first and foremost, it is not “ORANGE”. And that is a form of literacy. We read objects not through color, or scent, but through form.
FORM is the EMBODIMENT of someone’s DESIRE.
Please don’t be precious about Things, but also treat them well.
FORM can be TOUCHED.
Panthella design by Verner Panton © Verner Panton Design AG A very rare thing, to be RADICALLY SIMPLE yet SUPER RECOGNIZABLE like the Panthella.
The form of the UMBRELLA is one of protection – but Verner P. is idiosyncratic, and so instead of ‘KEEPING AWAY,’ the umbrella of the PANTHELLA (a part of its namesake) EMITS. Reversal of function is FUN. We perhaps don’t spend enough time appreciating this one.
A FOUNDATION is more than stability. A foundation can RESPOND to that which it supports, such as in the case of our beloved Panthella, which it does through SOFT REFLECTION.
— and perhaps because when illuminated the Panthella’s base seems to glow, there’s something sort of ‘SILHOUETTE’ about it more than many other lamps. It operates as a singular shape, not parts. And, the silhouette is mythical – remove detail, remove a sense of texture, and you simply have ‘THE IDEA’, the signifier, the story of ‘a lamp’.
Invite into your décor the Panthella, and you invite in something that stands between PAST and NOWNESS, something that’s been around but appeals to the cult of FRICTIONLESSNESS of today.
THE PANTHELLA IS REINTRODUCED.
THE PANTHELLA IS A TRIUMPH.
THE PANTHELLA IS A PARTY.
THE PANTHELLA IS EVERYTHING WE LOVE.
THE PANTHELLA IS FOREVER.
Did u make it thru that?
x
party looks like a good time
Bravo.