A project like no other before - the RIBA floor lamp is an oversized art sculpture that I made out of two old barber chairs! > the story behind it: Imagine this - you just got yourself involved in a... let's call it a game. You receive two far too old & cranky barber chairs & you can make with them anything you want. What would you do? Well, maybe you got some exceptional ideas about it (and I will be more than happy to know about them) but I am here to share my journey with these chairs & how they became this monstrous floor lamp. < from chairs to lamp - the process: You remember the piranha plant from Nintendo's Super Mario? & you know this deep sea creature, the angler fish (there was one in Pixar's Finding Nemo movie)? These two are the backbones of the RIBA floor lamp. Now, let me tell you more about it... Ideas come to us all the time & from all directions. & I believe when we come up with new ideas it is actually what we already have in our head, only structured differently. Strained & molded by our own perspective of the world. Or at least this is how I see creativity - new ideas are usually based on previous ones, iteration after another. A never ending process that leads to great achievements like building skyscrapers, flying in space, instant internet communication, exceptional technologies & such. The human mastermind is exceptional... But lets get back to the more simple things in life & how I used other people's ideas in my project. As most kids, I was a big fan of video games & I remember the first time I saw Super Mario 64 with my own eyes... it was literally mind-blowing to me back then in 1999. I was amazed at this whole new world, so mesmerizing & bizarre & imaginary. This feeling sunk in my mind & still remains. So this was the first association I made when I saw the barber chairs - I imagined the piranha flower that was always hungry for Mario. Quite expressive with its teeth & despite the missing face. I was going to make something like it, something with character & teeth. Thank you for that, Nintendo! Okay now I had the piranha plant to get me going, & I had to come up with a more specific idea of how the whole thing would look & feel like. So I went on to sketch it up before I use the saw. & putting it on paper got me elsewhere... This monster fish from Finding Nemo (yes, I like animations, too). & then it all just came together, I knew what I was doing (or at least most of the time I did). Now it was time for the saw & chisels to jump in & do their magic. Of course, I put my print on it & I even used the same mold I use for the ARKA floor lamp to make the rod. Yes, I was surprised how well it fits & took as a sign that it was destiny for me to build this! Finally, I did my part in this iteration of the angler fish & if it wasn't my childhood memory of Super Mario I doubt this project would look the way it does. So credit goes back to Nintendo & Pixar, & even further to the people who inspired them to create what they did. You get it? Ideas are linked just as people are. & I hope this creation of mine serves as someone else's next idea. Abstract Wooden Floor Lamp Sculpture - Riba Angler Fish
