02/10/2024 - Candela Cort is an "accidental hatmaker" whose handcrafted works are flexible and malleable, often created with everyday and even perishable materials, with no self-imposed constraints. The Spanish designer says of her work, "I feel free, I don't feel tied to the world of fashion or art. I want my work to go beyond trends or fashion seasons...I'm intuitive; I never know what's going to come out; I always let life take me and surprise me".
Driven by her intuition and freedom of expression, she has now moved into lighting design and created her first luminaire, Candela, in a first collaboration with LZF, a brand outside the fashion world, to create an object that combines aesthetics and function, art and design in a blend of abstraction and craft.
Composed of multi-coloured red wicker strips and geometric elements that seem to float around a central sphere, each lamp is a unique composition, numbered and signed by the artist, who creates them by hand in her Madrid studio. The visual reference to Kandinsky is evident in the flowing organic forms, supported by a black metal structure that acts as a subtle framework, complementing and contrasting the overall aesthetic of vibrant and colourful elements.
Available in pendant and wall versions, the sculptural objects evoke a sense of movement and life, fusing craft and abstraction, with balance and composition as the key aspects that she brings from her millinery background.
She explains, "The moment I met the LZF lamps, I felt connected to my world of headdresses and hats. I immediately imagined my creations as lamps".
Since her first exhibition in 1987 in Madrid, Cort has created hats for dance and film, royalty and fashion, and has shown her work at numerous exhibitions and museums throughout the world.
