Laurids Gallée Debuts Fused Geometry Luminaires at Brussels Gallery Objects With Narratives

“Beams, cones, and dish-like curves merge into continuous bodies,” Rotterdam-based, Austrian designer Laurids Gallée wrote in a statement for his “Lima Charlier” solo show, on view at Brussels gallery Objects With Narratives until May 24. For the past decade, the Design Academy Eindhoven–trained talent has made an impression upon the industry with his playful yet resolute exploration of form and inventive manipulation of material. Inherently, the conventions of function are always challenged.

Gallée’s new one-of-a-kind Array, Node, and System luminaires—unveiled in this exhibit—are perhaps the best examples of this dynamic approach yet. “Their orientation borrows from satellite dishes and antenna masts: faces set in different directions, as if streaming to an unknown place,” he added.

The resin-cast beam forms—intersected by disk-like shapes—are coherently configured and convincingly proportioned. The almost ethereally fused geometric components are both parts and counterparts. They come together at strategic inflection points; fully apparent yet seemingly seamless moments of layered contact. Visually enticing, they come into their own as celestial relics from some kind of suspended future.

Conceptually, the designer chose to reference, and riff on, the practical and poetic function of radio transmission and correlate the long-essential service with careful harnessing and diffusion of immaterial light. Just like with this technology, the orientation of the dish antenna was meticulously calibrated to facilitate multiple yet simultaneous instances of viewer encounter. What might seem like wonderfully articulated ornamentation actually serves a purpose.

Just like how the pieces are angled and hung, the choice of rendered hue was critical in shaping this experience. “The gradients are tuned: a controlled color drift that recalibrates as you move,” Gallée wrote in his statement. While the System trio glows in a golden brown, Array 01 emanates a silvery blue.

Colored in a salmon red, the Array 2 wall sconce is also a study in infrastructure; a slightly more explicit interpretation of the mechanical engineering involved in radio transmission. The fixture is hoisted into place by an assembly of suspension cables, carriers, connectors, and other unconcealed hardware. This interlacing of aluminum parts ontologically anchors the otherworld polymer resin beam in the recognizable: the industrial structure that have defined our world for the past 300 years.

With its focus on truly experimental design—a quality that’s become harder to come by across the collectible design market these days—relatively new gallery Objects of a are was the ideal platform to debut these works.