A BUGGS LIFE
LIGHTING INSTALLATION BY SEBASTIAN WRONG
9 JULY-19 AUGUST 2009
Having successfully launched the Buggs Light at the 2009 Salone Internazionale del Mobile, Sebastian Wrong has pushed his work further conceptually for this lighting installation, A Buggs Life. By adding gold teeth to an already existing pendant light he is referencing the notion of ‘perceived value’ through material and finish. The work is a clear commentary on the current economic and political climate.
For the limited edition Buggs Light Wrong has used the iconic glass opal sphere and edited it with a grinning mouth and teeth; merging modernism with popular cultural imagery, corrupting the sacred orb with the golden-toothed smile. The gold tooth is a fitting symbol of our times: greed and prosperity, boom and bust; or as Buggs Bunny would say once the dust had settled ‘what’s up doc’!
The materials used for the works are varied; the spheres are hand blown opal glass and acid etched. The gold tooth is an enameling process which is painted then fired onto the glass, the ‘key line’ detailing around the teeth is hand painted enamel.
‘The table lights are made up from a variety of materials; glass, marble, concrete, polyurethane and wood. Five very different materials in colour, density, touch and texture. The combined materials give a ‘totemic’ feel to lamps; each combination has a fine quality that reflects my interest in materials, process and the unorthodox application that is the essence of the work. The finesse of the concrete compared to the rough saw wood texture, rough and smooth, control and disorder... polar opposites working together,’ explains Sebastian Wrong.