Mathieu Lehanneur is an internationally renowned French designer. A jack of all trades, he experiments with the worlds of ornaments, furniture, architecture and art. His works feature in the collections of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the MoMA in New York and the Design Museum in Gent, Belgium. His series of glass and marble luminaires, S.M.O.K.E Landscape, represents a domestic catastrophe, evoking a fire, a gas leak, or a silent explosion. We can also see a volcanic eruption whose shape seems to have been fossilised by the blown glass. The designer raises scientific questions about substances, their reaction and also their environmental impact.
There is a marked contrast between the geometric aspect of the black base and the organic side of the glass. The latter, which features a gradient ranging from black to grey to transparent, seems to encapsulate diffused smoke. Looking at the work, it gives the impression that the glass is in the process of being blown by the artist.
