Swarovski has collaborated with emerging talent and RCA graduate, Kim Thomé on the landmark project - Zotem at the V&A as part of the London Design Festival 2015.
Featuring a colorful blend of light and movement, Zotem will occupy a central space in the Museum, rising vertically from the Grand Entrance up to the Contemporary Ceramics gallery, on the sixth floor. Making use of the high atrium that connects the Grand Entrance with the Ceramics Galleries, Zotem creates a visual link between the two spaces, prompting visitors to explore the building's interior architecture in a new way.
Zotem is a dynamic piece, designed to draw visitors' eyes upwards. Rising and falling through the floors, prismatic colors and linear patterns are reflected and refracted by Swarovski crystal to create an entrancing visual illusion. The installation comprises custom-made Swarovski crystals scaled up to 2.5 times their regular size and displayed in a grid pattern within a frame of matte black aluminium.
"The effect is almost difficult to describe because it's a bit unexpected," commented Thomé. "The crystals don't necessarily shine back at you, they're reflecting something else. It's like when you close your eye and you try and focus on it. Because that's the way you shut everything out and you can see the actual thing. The black grid form creates the sense of complete silence for the fragments and beauty in the crystal."
A roll of vividly printed mesh runs in a continuous loop inside the two aluminium faces - moving up one side and down the other. As light shines through the graphic mesh and the crystals, the pattern and colour is projected and distorted, creating a dynamic effect that brings the crystals to life.
The installation will be in place from September 15 through to October 31.
Photography: Mark Cocksedge