Discover Olafur Eliasson's New Light For Louis Poulson

“We often overlook the importance of lighting. We see the object it illuminates without thinking about the light falling on that object.” So explains artist Olafur Eliasson, who, throughout much of his career, has counteracted that impulse through immersive installations—from his 2003 Tate Modern commission, The Weather Project, which simulated a giant sun, to his rainbow panorama atop Denmark’s ARoS Aarhus Art Museum.

Now Eliasson has taken this interest outside an art context, unveiling a pendant lamp in collaboration with Danish lighting company Louis Poulsen. “It made sense to bring things I was exploring into domestic spaces,” says Eliasson, who grew up in Denmark and Iceland with Poulsen fixtures by the likes of Poul Henningsen and Arne Jacobsen. “Light is essential for pretty much all life on Earth. For humans it provides the very condition for us to see the world around us.”

Almost kaleidoscopic, Eliasson’s design nests a reflective polycarbonate polyhedron within a 35"-diameter aluminum skeleton. LED bulbs shine into its core for a softer glow, much the way light bounces off the petals of Henningsen’s iconic artichoke lamp. Notes Eliasson: “While my lamp fulfills the functional set of expectations, it also creates an atmospheric statement.” $18,000; louispoulsen.com