Glithero, led by British designer Tim Simpson and Dutch designer Sarah van Gameren, created a monumental installation made up of 160 multicoloured silicone cords, presented at the V&A for London Design Festival 2016. Located at Brompton Design District, in a six storey stairwell in the west wing of the Museum, Glithero introduces 'The Green Room', a kinetic installation centred around the passage of time. 

Designed in collaboration with the Italian luxury watch maker Panerai, this dramatic and complex installation - which can be viewed from multiple angles and levels by visitors to the V&A - explores the concept of time through the careful arrangement of layers and lengths of silicone cord.

In colour-block tones of neon-orange, pink and purple, the veils of cord shift and blend as they hang from a motorised revolving CAM arm. Imitating the circular motion of the arms of a clock, Glithero has choreographed the movement of the cords to create an optical illusion which will draw visitors into this immersive, performance-based initiative. Over the course of the Festival, the piece will constantly evolve, creating new visual experiences to draw in viewers. 

Within the historic stairwell, the Museum’s large round windows will let shafts of light shine through to help magnify the direction of light and colour and create a telescopic and cinematic feeling. Glithero is made up of British designer Tim Simpson and Dutch designer Sarah van Gameren. Having met and studied at the Royal College of Art, the pair founded Glithero and from their London studio create furniture and time-based installations and products which capture and present the beauty of the moment in which things are made.

''We wanted it to feel very much like you’re inside it and that it’s moving around you,'' explains Tim Simpson of the awe inspiring experience of looking up into the cylindrical tunnel from ground level. 

''It leads you up the stairwell where there are a number of windows that let you glimpse it from different levels, then at the top you discover the mechanism. We wanted to make something that you encounter in one place but that is explained in another,'' he adds.

Taking full advantage of the stairwell’s 17.5 metre drop, the silicone cords are looped over a 3.2 metre-diameter ring that’s clearly visible for all to see within the stairwell’s dome. Each cord is connected to a central rotating cam arm that turns at a rate of one revolution per minute. One by one the strings are lifted, slowly rising 2.5 metres from their starting point before returning back down again, creating the effect of parabolic motion. The result is an immersive wave of colour that is first encountered at ground level, just a little over head height.

Like much of Glithero’s work, the Green Room installation explores the theme of time making the collaboration with Panerai all the more pertinent. “It feels very in tune with the building,” says Simpson of the all-encompassing work. 

''Museums are all about our perceptions of time. The artefacts speak of other time periods and transport you there or make those periods of time tangible. So thinking about the work as a time piece within the building seemed like a very logical idea.''

Glithero are British designer Tim Simpson and Dutch designer Sarah van Gameren, who met and studied at the Royal College of Art. From their studio in London they create product, furniture, and time-based installations that give birth to unique and wonderful products. The work is presented in a broad spectrum of media, but follows a consistent conceptual path; to capture and present the beauty in the moment things are made.

For 2016, the Festival will continue until September 25, 2016 and its unique collaboration will continue with the world’s leading Museum of art and design. 

As the central hub location for the London Design Festival for the seventh year, the V&A will again house a broad range of commissioned activity which will be spread throughout the Museum and include installations, events, talks and workshops.

All images © Ed Reeve, courtesy of LDF

> via London Design Festival