Lux

Narrator
Lamps.

We use them everywhere.
When we read.
When we write.
When we’re trying to find something.

We use them so much we don’t even consider them, they’re just everyday objects.... 

Lux, by the Norwegian artist Jon Gundersen, is made from 15 Luxo lamps.  

The Luxo lamp has been a mainstay in homes and offices throughout the world since they were designed in the late 1930s.  

So much so, even Pixar, the animation studio behind so many popular movies, famously used it as part of their logo...  

Gundersen collected these for several years.  

In fact, Gundersen uses a lot of everyday objects, or found objects, in his artwork in general.  

He sees different potential in these everyday objects we use, or discard, and puts them together in sometimes surprising and surreal ways... 

The new objects and artworks he creates bring a playful twist to the viewer’s memories and can add hints of completely new functions and meanings. 

This play on memories and time, or nostalgia or historical retrospect, are central concepts in Gundersen’s work. 

In this instance, Gundersen has removed the lampshades and light bulbs from the movable lamp arms and replaced them with candles. The arrangement of lamps in a row looks more like a giant candelabra.  

Gundersen often has humorous and absurd elements in his artworks.  

For example, in other works of his, he has twisted a belt to resemble an armadillo, added a zip to a rock, or has created a kitchen weighing scales that weighs itself!  

We are challenged on what it actually is that we are seeing... 

In a humorous and fresh way, the artist gives us a new way to look at familiar things, and perhaps also, what art can be.