Think sculpture and you think of the traditional materials: clay, metal, maybe even glass. But polyethylene – plastic?
Los Angeles-based artist Doron Gazit makes you rethink all that. For his line of sculptural lighting, Frozen Flow, Gazit heats polyethylene until it’s liquid, then molds it by hand to create moving, lyrical and utterly beautiful shapes.
Image by Sorin Constantin
They remind you of something, it’s not just clear what. Something supernatural and otherworldly? Something alive? There’s romance there for sure: they remind me of dancers in silk gowns, of the fashions of Madame Vionnet, of the images by Cecil Beaton and Henri Cartier Bresson (particularly the photo of swirling dancers at Queen Charlotte’s Ball).
They’re most beautiful when lit, of course, but even unlit, they beguile and get you wondering. What are they? Melting wax? Some form of treated textile?
Image courtesy of Doron Gazit
Gazit is a sculptor, artist and industrial designer who graduated from the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem. Throughout his career, he’s been inspired by the movement of wind and light. He turned that fascination into a series of environmental works and installations (including one at Burning Man) called Sculpting the Wind, in which he captured air in clear tubes, creating patterns, and joy.
Image courtesy of Doron Gazit
Gazit’s done a lot of things in his life, but one of the most noteworthy acts came in being the first to introduce balloons to the Bedouins, the nomadic people in the Sinai desert. Gazit noted that although the balloons had no expression or meaning, the Bedouins responded to them with laughter and whimsy. Others reacted to the air within the balloon, as though the balloon had its own spirit or breath.
Image courtesy of Doron Gazit
Seriously lovely.
Details
www.frozenflow.com
www.dorongazit.com