THEME: Inspiration
5 DEC 2024
The fleeting sparkle of stars against the dark universe. This duality, the juxtaposition of Light & Dark leads into the world of art where light is the medium. At that point, the magic begins…
Beginnings
“In the summer of 2022, I started to work on a theme that would inform and inspire a new collection of Fine Jewellery. I was already exploring several ideas when, on the 12th of July 2022, the first images from NASA’s James Webb telescope were released. I had an immediate, overwhelming, emotional reaction to these images. Not only because of their breathtaking beauty but also because of the context. The James Webb telescope, being the most technically advanced telescope ever built, allows us to see galaxies and stars that were formed over 13.5 billion years ago. It can help us understand how the universe evolved by taking us back to where everything began, back to the fundamentals. That was something I could not ignore.” - M.S.
Images: https://www.nasa.gov/images/
Weeks of research followed, hundreds of images, grouped, analysed, observed, categorised, only to be set aside and revisited. The questions to answer:
Why these images? What makes them special? What stories do they tell us?
Clarity
Eventually, the essence became clear: the flickering stars in the sky. Shadow & Light. Duality.
Like a binary code. Like art using light. Like a pixel in darkness.
Image Left: Animating Light, 2011, LED installation, Leo Villareal.
Image Right: Harmony of the Spheres (Detail), 2020, LED and custom software installation, Leo Villareal.
In Search for the Fundamentals
What is the design process if not a balancing act between the whole and the detail?
The whole sets the tone. The detail permits focus.
The interplay continues until we arrive at a solution…
When all is said and done, it is a Pixel and a Ray.
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