FOIL was one of the most visited decorative installations of London Design Festival 2016 (LDF). This was on show at the Victoria and Albert (V&A) museum from September – October 2016.
TM Lighting worked closely with Benjamin Hubert of Layer Design to create FOIL. In association with Braun, the huge, rotating sculpture creates an immersive experience around the gallery as it reflects polygons of light across the historic tapestries.
The large-scale installation comprised of 50,000 mirror-finish stainless steel panels on a 20-metre by 1.2-metre undulating ribbon that ran down the length of the gallery. The ribbon was driven by a high-power German motor in a constant sine-wave motion. Light from LEDs reflected off the panelled surface to create a slowly morphing and evocative pattern of scattered light, moving across the walls and ceiling of the gallery. The installation was accompanied by an atmospheric soundscape that emulated the fluid motion of the sculpture and the reflected light. The shape of the metallic elements was informed by the precision engineered shape of the Braun shaver foil and the movement was inspired by the 360-degree movement of the Braun shaver head.
TM Lighting provided their ZeroSixty LED accent lights with custom snoot. TM Lighting was selected because their lighting considers conservation aspects and museum standards of lighting required in the room that houses fragile historic tapestries.
The lighting is the integral part of this undulating sculptural wave. Each lighting element delicately arcs from the sculpture to key locations integral to the decorative element. The light is restrained to only illuminate the face of the mirrored panels, the single focal points from each light source do not overlap, creating clear individual geometric reflections across the darkened historic gallery space. The mesmerising decorative design, the reflected light and shadow, combined with the delicate evocative soundscape made this a memorable and entertaining experience for V&A, LDF and London Biennale visitors.
