Notes
February 7, 2013

Glass Elephant – interplay of industrial robots and fragile glass

Design installation on the verge of industrial design, craftsmanship and performance - Glass Elephant - is created with the purpose to vitalize Stockholm Design Week's image as an innovative and dynamic meeting place. The exhibition explores the properties of glass as material and muse, and tells a story about the meeting of contrasts.

GLASS ELEPHANT - works of Ann Walhlstrom.

The exhibition provokes the question of the fragility of contemporary consumer society.  Gossamer glass meets robot arms of steel and the advanced tactile technology of the hand meets the indefatigable precision of the machine in a floating, inquisitive interplay.

GLASS ELEPHANT - works of Carina Seth Andersson.

“The desire for material things is universal, but what exactly do we become without our fetishes and the props we surround ourselves with? Cave people?” wonders Åsa Jungnelius, one of designers that are featured in Glass Elephant.

She wanted to personify the robots, to make them as much human as machine. “They could be about to engage in some kind of jerky wrestling match” – explains Åsa.

The basic concept of the exhibition architecture originates in the cavern setting, which is completely without natural light. The intention was to emphasize the existing space and have added what was not already there. So the installation design has windows as a theme. Designed by TAF Arkitekter.

Other designers taking part in the exhibition are Ann Wåhlström; Carina Seth Andersson; Katja Pettersson; Magnus Elebäck and Chris Martin, Massproductions; Note Design Studio; Simon Klenell and John Astbury, Whatswhat.

— Everyone that hang around Stockholm in the following days should visit the installation, which is  open to the public until 9 February 12-6 pm. It’s located in the Skeppsholmen Caverns, the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities.

— Glass Elephant is a unique, creative collaboration between Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair and ABB.

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