THE LIGHTING COLLECTION
Duck Desk Lamp
FOR SALE IN ‘SHOP’
Alex Randall specializes in using reclaimed materials in chandeliers and lamps. Looking at this work you can see a re-emergence of taxidermy as a reaction to a decade when sameness reigned – be that Eames or Ikea.
"There's a desperation to reintroduce character to our homes" says Randall.
Taxidermy is incongruously an ethical design choice. If an animal is already dead, why not preserve it? "Most of the animals we use are shot as vermin and their bodies either used as food for other animal or left to rot. By giving them a purpose, they become quite beautiful" Randall remarks
Rats, ravens and crows play into taxidermy's inate Gothicism. Yet once creatives get their hands on a furry or feathery body, the results can be playful rather than dark and depressing. Here the aristocratic trophy tradition is twisted into something anti-establishment.
Words: Francesca Gavin, taken from Wallpaper magazine, 'Fatal Attraction' April 2009.
