Born in the Netherlands in 1985 and raised in New Zealand, designer Sabine Marcelis graduated from the Design Academy of Eindhoven before setting up her studio in 2011 in the Netherlands. For Marcelis, the interplay of light, colour, materiality and form drive her process-driven practice. She has spent a decade experimenting with resin and glass, creating products, interiors, and installations. These components form a key part of her practice and her work has long explored the possibilities of uniting them to create contemporary works of design.
Growing up in New Zealand, Marcelis spent time in nature as a child, by the sea and in the ocean. Her design practice draws inspiration from the interplay of light in the sky, the ocean, and the snow to create beautiful and ever-changing moments in the design of objects for interiors. As a mirror, light and sculpture, Shadow light forms a dynamic combination of colour and light. Radiating an ethereal glow, the work appears as a mid-eclipse mirror, with a silvery, coral-coloured crescent and encircled by a LED light.
About her preoccupation with light, Marcelis says:
Light – you can diffuse, refract, shade, tint it – it’s an endless source of inspiration and a tool for me to design with. Aside from light having a functional element, it also has an emotional value to it. When you’re surrounded by warm light it also makes you feel that warmth and cosiness. I want to create works that have the ability to change a space, an atmosphere and mood for the better ... Every day I see daylight slowly becoming warmer and eventually disappearing. To me the role of lighting design is to pick up where the sun left off and bring that same sense of warmth and atmosphere into the home.
Text by Rebecca Evans, Curator of Decorative Art and Design at AGSA
November 1, 2022
