Last night, a star-studded crowd trickled into the Metropolitan Museum of Art for its annual gala beneath a gargantuan chandelier made of what appeared to be plastic water bottles. After the event took place, several members of the art community noticed what appeared to be suspicious similarities between the chandelier and the plastic works of American artist Willie Cole. — ARTnews
Cole’s work is included in the museum’s permanent collection, and the large-scale chandeliers in question were profiled just two months ago by the New York Times. The large-scale pieces were made of nearly 6,000 individual water bottles and were created to instigate a conversation about the water crisis afflicting Cole’s hometown of Newark, New Jersey, in 2019. Some have found them comparable on social media.
The pieces were also profiled in Vogue yesterday, which quoted event planner Raul Àvila as saying: "We wanted to find a way to create a sustainable design that would implement the bottles into a breathtaking installation unlike anything we’ve done before."
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*Insert ChatGPT poem about artists, celebrities and starchitects and the irony of trying to stay relevant among the rest of the 99% of common folk population*
Did no one at the Met point out to Ando about the similarity? There's a chance he came up with a vague concept involving bottles that his studio then tried to develop into something buildable - that process of translating sketch to reality might have resulted in something similar-looking to Cole's work.
My brief encounter with Ando left me with an impression he is a solid creative person who wouldn't be resorting to someone else's idea or form. Why would he? Though, the traffic in the other direction is heavy.; I have seen water bottles (not as a chandelier) integrated into the design in Tijuana. Besides, 'Light and Water' isn't new.
Ando's looks so much worse. Embarrassing.
Whats up with Ando? First Kim K then this shit?
He’s trying to get some booty.
This is precious. What on earth makes Cole's work special, other than he used plastic water bottles? I suspect DIY'rs have been making lights out of them for years.
And I'm curious. In either case did they salvage bottles or, more likely, buy new, filled bottles and empty them?
From the Newark Star Ledger, 2013:
https://www.nj.com/entertainment/2013/04/earth_day_artist_willie_cole_r.html
If anyone was going to be pleased by the Met’s choice to feature artworks made from recycled bottles, it would be Willie Cole, who has been a passionate “up-cycler” for years. (It’s just a shame that they chose someone else to do it.) If you know Cole’s work, you know that he’s been creating artworks from discarded objects like previously-worn shoes, irons, ironing boards, appliances, and, yes, used plastic bottles for a few decades now. When he created this bottle installation in my hometown back in 2014,
he used recycled bottles collected by the kids in our local schools. And as the Times reported in February, Cole recently “invited community members and visitors [in Newark] to make additional sculptures with donated water bottles. He plans for those works to debut in June as part of his new public art commission along Park Avenue in Manhattan, for the Fund for Park Avenue.”
(Should be an easy walk there from the Met.)
There’s a reason the Fund for Park Avenue and numerous others have commissioned Willie Cole to do these sorts of installations over the years—he’s the real deal.
Willie Cole, “Ten Thousand Reasons” (2014):
https://www.williecole.com/10k-reasons-1
Thanx all for the info.
Mr. Ando also used a bottle scheme (though with filled bottles of spring water) about 20 years ago in his design for the NYC outpost of Morimoto Restaurant [ https://tinyl.io/8VEu ].
Cole, show us your recorded government document granting you sole copyright to your specific chandelier design. Otherwise, you have no grounds.
Exactly. Another artist, Sheila Rogers, installed a plastic water bottle chandelier in Corpus Christie Int'l Airport in 2018, one year before Cole. Did he steal her design? Or just have a similar idea?
Link to that chandelier: https://www.facebook.com/flyccia/posts/a-chandelier-in-the-ccia-terminal-local-artist-sheila-rogers-has-created-an-art-/10155731941942151/
Willie Cole with chandelier (2014):
https://www.williecole.com/colombia-project-1
"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness." - Oscar Wilde
Of course Cole doesn’t hold a copyright on this, nor is he seeking damages. But considering that the Times just ran a feature on him and his chandeliers a couple of months ago (
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/23/arts/design/willie-cole-art-newark.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/23/arts/design/willie-cole-art-newark.html?referringSource=articleShare), you’d think someone at the Met might have had the sense to realize that people would naturally see the similarities between Cole’s designs and those used at the Gala. As others have pointed out, Cole is an exhibiting artist at the museum. Did they really think that no one would notice if they featured chandeliers strikingly similar to his own at their most high-profile event?
And, by the way, @archidose, Cole has been making these sorts of chandeliers since at least 2014 if not earlier:
Just saw 2019 in the article so didn't realize his earlier versions. Seems like The Met, with his works in their collection, should have known better. Shooting themselves in the foot by letting this happen.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. People have been ripping off Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe for ever and no one says a thing. How could be that?!?
I hate when people steel my lighting designs using light bulbs. :(
This is a fun game. Water bottle chandeliers don't really seem all that unique. I bet we can find ones from even earlier than 2013 with a little more digging. https://art.unionmarketdc.com/...
You can, Katharine Harvey has been doing this since 2001:
https://katharineharvey.com/ar...
Her work was on view in NY in 2012.
https://www.codaworx.com/proje...
same medium, not even remotely similar looking - although Mr Cole's does look better. manufactured outrage for publicity works
What the hell...
Cleaning out the attic?
Then there's this:
A project called 'Liter of Light' is hoping to bring light to places that need it most, by using DIY lamps made from plastic bottles. Mashable caught up with the founder of the project to hear how it works and find out who can benefit.
One of the immediate impacts of a natural disaster, like the hurricane that recently wreaked havoc in Haiti, is that it's often followed by darkness. It takes months for aid, and in this case light, to reach the most remote places.
https://mashable.com/article/a-liter-of-light
And this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPXjzsXJ1Y0
Worth watching. And the designer has made the circuitry and design open source.
Picture from the YouTube—and this is the Liter-of-Light project. At night the lamp uses solar powered LEDs.
Via battery backup, obviously.
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