Adam Markowitz and Apple Huang, Wasteland lamp; Recycled HDPE plastic (primarily sourced from Milk Bottles, Shampoo Bottles & Hand Soap), Brass, Recycled Timber (old rafters), Most Lighting Components cannibalised from 2nd hand lamp; photo: Mitchell Ransome
Our April laurel goes to Adam Markowitz and Apple Huang for their Droop Lamp, which reveals new possibilities of beauty from the waste that is our industrial legacy.
The components are recycled HDPE plastic (primarily sourced from milk bottles, shampoo bottles & hand soap), brass, recycled timber (old rafters). Most lighting components are cannibalised from second-hand lamps. The milk bottles provide translucency while the shampoo bottles offer vibrant colours as decoration. As they write, “Given we’re stuck with this waste material for the next thousand odd years, we might as well see what it can do.”
Here’s a more detailed view that the reveals the fine work that transforms these “crude” materials.
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- photo: Mitchell Ransome
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- Adam Markowitz and Apple Huang, Wasteland lamp; photo: Mitchell Ransome
As Damien Wright observes:
Honouring both the unique gift and grace of the human hand and the interest of contemporary design in new extractive and processing frontiers. The wee lamp celebrates the disaster of design and marketing, its consume at all cost ideology and its environmental and human sacrifice. Recasting vanity plastics into a playful jellyfish shade. Soft, magnetic, possibly poisonous and full of life. Grounded to our earth by an ebonised teardrop base of salvaged eucalyptus reganius timber. An anchor whose surface proudly shows the skill and material knowledge of the human that made it. Its hardwood surface is delicately scalloped. It is beautiful, intelligent and without a hint false irony or hypocrisy. Our future is handmade.
Adam Markowitz is a Designer/Maker of furniture & lighting, practising architect and educator. He has trained in furniture design in Hobart and at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art. He undertook further craft studies at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Maine USA. His work has been exhibited both locally and internationally in London and New York. Since 2015 he has operated independent design studio, markowitzdesign, from the Meat Markets in North Melbourne. His practice seeks to find a balance between contemporary design and traditional methods of craftsmanship. He currently also teaches a furniture design subject at the Melbourne School of Design, The University of Melbourne.
Apple Huang is a Graduate Architect and tutor at the University of Melbourne. Having spent the first half of her life on the island of Borneo, she has an affinity towards exploring the relationship between nature and the built environment. As part of Ex-Lab – the Experimental Design Workshop at the Melbourne School of Design., her work, “Clare Table”, a piece made of recycled HDPE plastics was shortlisted for the Salone del Mobile Milano 2018
