To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the iconic lava lamp, five creatives from the world of fashion, design and music have created limited-edition lava lamps.
The original 1963 Astro, with its distinctly rocket-shaped design, has been continuously manufactured since its invention by British entrepreneur Edward Craven Walker, the founder of lighting company Mathmos.
Pop band Duran Duran’s sleek metallic take on the Astro lamp is etched with the signatures of each of the four members and a Duran Duran logo. It glows bright pink when turned on and is completely transparent when off. ‘During the late Nineties we were making an album in our London studio where several lava lamps enhanced the ambience,’ Nick Rhodes, co-founder and keyboardist for the global music legends, recalls - and they have a song called ‘Lava Lamp’ on their 2000 Pop Trash album.
The lamp designed by international design studio Studio Job, led by Belgian contemporary conceptual and sculptural artist and designer Job Smeets, features a gold anodised finish etched with Studio Job's signature ‘Perished’ skeleton pattern. The lamp has a gold coating on the glass which creates an ombre effect between gold and red.
‘I've always been fascinated by lava lamps and their magical dance,’ says Dutch artist and designer Sabine Marcelis. Her frosted glass blurs the yellow lava moving inside her lamp: ‘I wanted to enhance that idea of mystery by frosting the bottle so that the lava liquid becomes veiled behind a haze,’ she explains.
Renowned British photographer and film director Rankin chose a blue version of the Astro Vinyl, with his name and the words ‘Let there be light’ etched on the cap. The lava is aquamarine and blue, and a Rankin photograph features on the box.
Multidisciplinary French designer Camille Walala, known for her ambitious, large-scale and explosively colourful interventions, created a lamp with red and violet lava wonderfully contrasted by a sleek black base and cap etched with bold lines and the Walala logo.
Each collaboration has only 600 units which are numbered with a unique security sticker.
Read more
