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During Art Basel Hong Kong, the city revealed its latest creative centre – PMQ – a transformed former Police Marital Quarters in the ever- changing Sheung Wan district. To celebrate the opening, Swarovski commissioned the London based designers, Patrick Fredrikson and Ian Stallard to create “Prologue” and debuted the creation at PMQ, before exhibiting at Art Basel Miami.
“The new Police Married Quarters is a fantastic creative hub, and Fredrikson Stallard’s Prologue, is a fitting symbol of its spirit of optimism and vibrancy,” says Nadja Swarovski, member of the Executive Board at Swarovski Crystal Business.
The giant vertical circular steel frame is four metres in diameter. It is suspended from a single steel cross beam and holds over 8,000 golden Swarovski droplet crystals. The monumental structure addresses its relationship with the space through its weight and tension, while the “luminous lens” mimics the iconography of the sun as it shimmers and constantly reflects and refracts light. It glistens in the sunlight during the day and glows with the surrounding neon signs at night. It’s a rare sculpture to be found in the densely populated city with such grandeur, both in scale and form of materials. This also reflects the designers’ signature style – evokes the feeling of desire and decay, seamlessly blends archaic traditions with the avant-garde.
But the presence of the art form is not only detected by sight. Occasionally, a whiff of musty air blows through in the breeze and according to the designers, it’s part of the “charm”.
“Because this is a site-specific structure, we had Hong Kong in mind in the design process. The climate in Hong Kong at this time of year is hot and humid therefore we decided to use steel as the structure as it oxidises quickly in this condition. We like the fact that the sculpture can only complete upon arrival. The layer of rust echoes with the golden crystals. However, we will remove the rust layer when it’s displayed in Miami!,” the design duo explains.
Their bold yet calculated approach got the seal of approval of Ms Swarovski, “We’ve worked with Fredrikson Stallard repeatedly over the years on lighting pieces, sculpture, installations and, most recently, on a stunning jewellery collection for our Atelier Swarovski luxury accessories range. They are amongst the most talented designers working today and their work is always beautiful and highly impactful. They have a flair for dramatic large scale pieces and the technicalities to realise them.”
Swarovski Elements was set up 12 years ago and have been collaborating with artists and designers on various projects from jewelry to architecture. Previous collaborators including Ron Arad, Tom Dixon, Zaha Hadid, Alexander McQueen and many more. The aim is “to work with creative talents in pushing the boundaries of design, art, architecture and technology”.
The possibilities of crystals in terms of forms, size, colours, facets are endless. But Fredrikson Stallard chose to stick with one type of crystals throughout the 8,000 piece monument.
“It’s the uniformity and simplicity that creates the ‘lens’ like effect. Although they are hung on the same plane and at the same angle, light is reflected and refracted by the crystals in many different ways which creates depths and a different dimension to the sculpture.”
by Lucienne Leung-Davies