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V&A Projects

Omer Arbel: 28.280

Supporter

14 September 2013

Grand Entrance and Gallery 141, Ceramics
V&A, Cromwell Road, SW7 2RL
Supporter
https://www.bocci.ca/

Bocci

Bocci is a decade-old design and manufacturing company based in Vancouver and Berlin. Founded in 2005 under the creative directorship of Omer Arbel, Bocci is committed to fostering a lateral and open-ended relationship between creative direction and craft.In 2005, Bocci was founded in a red barn surrounded by hay fields, on the periphery of Vancouver, Canada. The company launched with one product, 14, which became an instant classic and remains a design staple and bestseller. All Bocci designs are developed, engineered, and fabricated in-house through an infrastructure calibrated to provide full control over technique, quality, and scale.

With headquarters in Vancouver and Berlin, Bocci operates as a co-operative community of designers, architects, craftspeople, technicians, agents, governance bodies, testing facilities, raw material suppliers, and fine shops. We strive for a healthy, flexible, and stable network united by the goal of creating and delivering extraordinary objects.

Home > Events > Omer Arbel: 28.280
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Visitors were greeted by the 28.280 custom-made chandelier by Canada-based designer Omer Arbel. Hung from the cupola, the highest point of the building, the installation spanned the vast height of the museum.

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28.280 by Omer Arbel
28.280 by Omer Arbel
28.280 by Omer Arbel
28.280 by Omer Arbel
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The installation cascaded more than 30 metres through the centre of the ceramics galleries, past the coffered ceiling beneath and finally appeared above the main doorway as visitors entered the museum. The installation was made up of 280 individual 28 Series glass pendant lamps that were each suspended from the cupola – every pendant was handmade at design brand Bocci’s glass factory in Canada using a fabrication process developed by Arbel.

Abel explained, “28 Series is an exploration of a fabrication process which is part of our quest for specificity. Instead of designing form itself, here the intent was to design a system that haphazardly yields form, almost as a byproduct. 28 pendants result from a complex glass blowing technique whereby air pressure is intermittently introduced into and then removed from a glass matrix which is intermittently heated and then rapidly cooled. The result is a distorted spherical shape with a composed collection of inner shapes, one of which is made of opaque milk glass and houses a light source.”

The main entrance was not the only place to enjoy views of the installation. Visitors could venture to The McAulay Gallery (Room 141, Contemporary Ceramics) on the 6th level for an entirely different vista through the centre of the chandelier. Within this cavernous domed space, they experienced the full impact of the installation as it descends from its fixing point in the cupola, through a void in the dome into the McAulay Gallery and down into the main entrance foyer. The visual spectacle was that of a torrent of water dropping through the museum, each one unique in form and radiating a different colour.

Supported by Bocci.