Less CPP N2: Porcelain vs Lava Lights

gt2P is a collaborative of five artists that was founded in Santiago, Chile in 2009. The members use current technology and techniques—in the case of this lamp, LED lighting, electronic sensors, and a Catenary Pottery Printer (the firm’s own "analog" interpretation of a 3D printer for porcelain)—with traditional and natural materials, such as lava and porcelain.

Each shade is made by pouring porcelain slip through cheesecloth held at coordinates on the printer so as to create variation in shapes and a naturally strong structure whose curve is determined by gravity acting on the fabric. The characteristics of each disc is determined by the number of layers, translucency, reinforcement of the porcelain components with lava, and the precise temperature at which the porcelain biscuit and the lava anchor are baked.

On some models (not The Met's example which dims by remote control), the lava "nipple" becomes the dimmer switch by passing one’s finger over it. The result is a work that bears a distinctly contemporary Chilean identity, with its references to an abundant natural local material, and its forms that simultaneously evoke a tactile eroticism, abstraction, and the topography and geological structure of Chile’s snowcapped volcanoes.