EXHIBITIONS
Michael Anastassiades
Date: Sep 26 – Oct 28, 2017
Location: Taka Ishii Gallery Tokyo viewing room
Taka Ishii Gallery is pleased to present the first exhibition show of Michael Anastassiades from September 26 to October 28. Anastassiades has been working for more than twenty years in lighting and furniture design. For his first presentation with the gallery, he will be showing four lighting works. “Mobile Chandelier 3” is part of the ongoing “Mobile Chandelier” series which started on 2008. The “Mobile Chandelier” plays with equilibrium through the dialogue between the perfectly shaped spheres and minimal lines. And three works from the series “General Illuminations”, “Biri Biri”, “Captive” and “Nudge”, inspired by the classic pinball. “Nudge” is almost a trompe l’oeil as the light sitting on the mirror surfaces reflect the light and create an endless depth.
Anastassiades is interested in how lighting exists in two realities: being on and being off. When off, the lighting shown as an object, a visual element that occupies the space; communicates its materiality, reflectivity, fragility and volume. And when on, this glowing source fills a completely different space within the room, engaging on the relationship between all the objects around it, as it gets the shadows casted on other objects against the wall.
Michael Anastassiades’ design philosophy is to preserve the inherent qualities of given material. Anastassiades finds beauty in every material, material is material. He is interested in the dynamic relationship of how one’s relationship to one’s objects changes over time. Positioned between fine art and industrial design, his pieces exist between what is utilitarian in its function, whilst poetic and enigmatic in its presence.
Michael Anastassiades was born in 1968 in Cyprus. Trained as a civil engineer at Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine in London before taking a master’s degree in industrial design at the Royal College of Art. He found his London studio in 1994, followed by his brand in 2007 in order to broaden the availability of his signature designs.
His solo exhibitions include Norfolk House Music room, Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2010); Cyprus Presidency at the European Parliament, Brussels (2012); “Time and Again at the Geymüllerschlössel”, MAK, Vienna (2012); “To Be Perfectly Frank”, Svenskt Tenn, Stockholm (2013); “Reload the Current Page”, Point Centre for Contemporary Art, Nicosia (2014) and “Doings on Time and Light”, Rodeo Gallery, Istanbul (2015).
Anastassiades has collaborated with FLOS, Puiforcat, Lobmeyr, Herman Miller, Salvatori, Nilufar, and Svenskt Tenn and worked with architects, David Chipperfield and John Pawson.
His works are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the FRAC Centre, Orléans; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and MAK, Vienna.
