Dutch artist Pieke Bergmans playfully redesigns street lamps and light bulbs to look like animated figures. Her latest series titled Metamorphosis offers a whimsical transformation to said inanimate objects by elongating and twisting their bodies around one another. One piece in the collection is a pair of anthropomorphized street lamps that appear to be intwined in a romantic dance as one streetlight gently dips its partner. The piece has a certain romantic ambience coupled with an enchanting flood of whimsy.
In addition to reconfiguring the towering illuminated poles, Bergmans adds a liveliness to glass bulbs with a similar approach. Both in Metamorphosis and her Light Bulbs series, the artist explores a variety of intriguing shapes that a glass bulb can take while retaining its identity. There is still a roundness to each of her creations, though they clearly stray from the generic light bulb form. They are revamped into bulging luminous blobs of light that seem almost gelatinous. They look squishy enough to mold with your own hands as they droop and settle into the curves of multi-textured surfaces. Walking through one of Bergmans installations can feel like you’ve just stepped into a cartoon by the likes of Tim Burton or perhaps a darker Dr. Suess.
