Studio Elémentaires

White Night begins a research on Urban Light Objects and arises from a series of images of hairdressers signs taken in Japan and China.

Hanging on a street corner, on either side of a shop window, fabricated with recycled materials, or wrapped into blinding colours, these signs decline in a variation of forms and effects, the original blue-white-red version of the barber’s pole lamp.

These photographs reveal a collection of processes of re-appropriation, of sidesteps regarding this popular icon which stands as a signal upon the city.

From this urban framework between functionality and ornament, kitsch and technical beauty, light and kinetism, we have captured this object, in our turn.

The version #1, in aluminum, gives the object a radical aesthetic by its monochrome aspect. The ornamental and decorative shape of the spiral acquires a technic and urban dimension, between a light reflector and a reflective strip.

The light source is assumed and highlights the graphic and visual strength of the moving pattern, voluntarily decelerated in order to reinforce its hypnotic effect.

Suspended and no longer fixed along a wall, the lamp escapes from its role of sign and gives place to contemplation. Moved into other environments, White Night opens new insights and new uses.