Destructive Deco Lamp Series by Frank Tjepkema
Frank Tjepkema
Destructive Deco Lamp Series, 2005
How much decoration can a lamp take before it begins to fall apart? Frank Tjepkema explores this question in Destructive Deco, a series of three pendant lamps made from thin wood veneer.
Each shade begins with the same form and pattern but spends a different amount of time beneath a laser cutter: 10, 20, or 30 minutes. The first is lightly engraved, while the following versions become increasingly detailed, perforated, and fragile. With every extra minute, the lamp costs more to produce, even though the process slowly damages the material and weakens its function.
What changes is the time spent by the machine:
- € lamp: 10 minutes of laser processing
- €€ lamp: 20 minutes
- €€€ lamp: 30 minutes
The series playfully challenges the idea that more work and a higher price must result in a better product. In the most heavily processed version, decoration nearly consumes the lamp itself, yet the scorched openings produce unexpected patterns of light. Destruction, in this case, becomes part of the beauty.
Destructive Deco was part of the Droog’s Value for Money project and presented during Milan’s Salone del Mobile in 2005.
