Shapeshifting Chandelier is a ceiling-mounted wire art sculpture that incorporates programmable colour-changing lamps. It’s installed at the entrance to the Gorgeous George Hotel in Cape Town.
We’ve described it as ‘a passionate entanglement of hand and machine with a vegetal theme’. It uses the form of the Protea flower indigenous to Cape Town (and found in other parts of the world). Protea comes from ‘protean’ meaning shapeshifting.
The work is a labour of love, with many hundreds of hours of wire-sculpting and weaving work embedded in it, along with a range of technological processes, from VR sculpting to 3D printing and computer coding of LEDs.
Credits:
Lead artist Ralph Borland
Wire art Lewis Kaluzi, Frank Shiduma, Felix Mukuze, Kelvin Dube, Wallace Marimo, Shelton Marimo, Farai Kanyemba, Sainani Simoya
Metal work Kenny, Frank Shiduma
3D and VR Jason Stapleton
3D-printing Da Vinci Labs, Numerical Creations, the robot
Lights and electronics the robot
Coding Evan Robinson
Engineer Karl Hvidsten
Inspiration Dara Kell
Side project Ira Kell Borland
Thanks to Tobi and the Gorgeous George team!