FILAMENT OF THE
IMAGINATION
A collaboration between US
architect/artist James Wines
and Foscarini pushes the artistic
envelope of the light bulb
WORDS: Jill Entwistle
PICTURES: Foscarini
Collaborations between Italian lighting company Foscarini and James Wines span nearly 30 years. Wines, winnerofthe National Design Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2013, is the president and founder
of architecture and environmental arts studio SITE,
established in New York in 1970. His work focuses on
the fusion of art, architecture and landscape.
SITE’s design remit encompasses buildings, public
spaces, parks, interiors and product designs. Wines
has designed more than 150 buildings in 11 states, and
has received 25 art and design awards. A professor of
architecture at Penn State University, he continues to
write and to lecture on an international level about
integrative thinking and environmental themes.
The first fruit of the creative relationship between
Foscarini and SI TE was Table Light/ Wall Light, created
in 1991 for the Abitare il Tempo exhibition in Verona,
Italy. Some years later, following an extensive profile
of the group in Inventario – the design, architecture
and art book-zine directed by Beppe Finessi, organised
and supported by Foscarini – led to Foscarini’s idea of
approaching Wines to revive the first project, evolving
it into a collection of editions.
The Light Bulb Series is a signature collection, in
numbered limited editions, an artistic riff ‘on the light
bulb as an archetype’. The series includes five different
interpretations of the iconic shape, with two, the
Black and White Lights, the only functional electric
versions. Black Light inverts the components of the
object, by turning the bulb black and dark, while the
socket emits light. Candle Light portmanteaus two
Melting Light, halfway between form and liquefaction
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