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101 Design is a Korean studio that has recently been making the designer circuit in Asia with their unique take on contemporary lighting and furniture. I am left a bit at a loss for words as I gaze at this Spiral Table, silently cocooned in industrial black cord. Is there a message here? What is the artist's intent? Like some sentient creature rising from the depths, the cord certainly seems to have a sinuous stranglehold on the lamp, and it appears to be going for the table as well. And yet the little light shines on, like some brave, stalwart soldier. Oh, what a metaphor.

Watch me unravel, I'll soon be naked

Aside from all of my waxing poetic in the personification department, the piece is slick and sophisticated in its black trappings, and the cord lends some real textural appeal. I hardly think it would make as strong a statement without its serpentine cage.

Spiral Lamp

In other works, 101 Design also brought us the 48 lamp in 2007, made from forty-eight wire hangers emanating from a central bulb. This was a big hit at the recent design shows in Tokyo and Seoul, and not without reason. Two models - one resting atop a tripod base, and the other suspended - are testimonies to the designers' resourcefulness in recycling and re-contextualizing a common every day object. What a creative way to reuse something so generally disregarded, and even disliked (I can't stand wire hangers, personally).

'48'

No word on if any of these will go into production, but if they keep coming up with concepts like these, I believe this new little design group will have an apt and attentive audience, eagerly awaiting their next move.

Via designboom
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Sarah O
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