SHANGHAI G9
A couple of months back i was out in Shanghai to oversee the completion of my art/interior collaboration with Architect INDJ.
G九 上海 (G9 Shanghai) is a restaurant set within a dramatic triple height space that is part of main land China’s first luxury department store; Lane Crawford. The central focal point of the restaurant is this huge interactive Lighting installation that cascades through the space and down my ‘Grafitti Fetish’ light wall:
14976 LED’s
9200m of cable
956 pendant light installation
99 seats
67sqm artwork
1 Kinect camera
Make this a truly unique and luxurious art piece that can be played with and controlled from the VIP seating mezzanine.
Watch this clip>>>
I feel extremely excited to show this piece as it was a great pleasure to work with INDJ and the restaurant owner on creating this piece.
About the space:
G九 is a culmination of ideas that have influenced atelier I-N-D-J from the studios inception. Technology Industry Luxury and Excess collide; manifest in concrete, raw steel, black marble, shimmering gold, bright light and high art. G九 is a brash celebration for the rise of the Chinese economic super power, more so glittered with gold befitting of the Paris of the east – 上海
The notion of luxury and excess reaches it’s pinnacle with a major site specific super scaled artwork by British artist INSA. A user activated Lighting installation cascades through the space terminating in INSA’s trademark ‘Grafitti Fetish’ – an exploration of the iconography of modern aspirations: for the artist, the graffiti fetish concisely embodies the central concern of his output. The graffiti fetish pattern derives from two archetypal icons associated with contemporary femininity: high heels and curves – objects that have also become aspirational commodities. Within the undulating contours of this apparently abstract design, a two-fold vision of these icons is revealed: they simultaneously celebrate and question our consumerist ideology.
Balanced upon a lateral beam A VIP platform sits high above the banquette table, this elevated position serves as symbolic elevation of status, an exclusive position of grandeur from which to survey the space, here users are invited to engage in the light installation and art piece – a 3d depth sensing camera empowers the user with the ability to control the speed brightness and pattern of the light with simple hand gestures, In this way the light installation and art work in synchronisation controlled by a singular user.
The light installation and art work collaboration between indj and Insa marks an evolution of INSA’s pioneering work with the GIF medium; whereby multiple frames are painstakingly painted photographed and animated digitally. G9 is a reversal of this process whereby the digital is manifest physically in the 67sqm art work.
No Comments