Design Miami 07: Stuart Haygarth created a chandelier called Drop during Design Miami last week, consisting of the bases of plastic water bottles.

The project was one of several design performances at the fair. The photos here show different stages of the performance. Update: see our movie of the performance, including an interview with Haygarth.

More Dezeen stories about Stuart Haygarth:
New work by Stuart Haygarth
Spectacle Chandelier
Stuart Haygarth at ToolsGalerie
Gift Light
Optical Chandelier
Tail Light at Gallery Libby Sellers

Haygarth has sent us the following text:

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DROP CHANDELIER – Design Miami 2007– Stuart Haygarth

Drinking mineral water has become such an integral part of contemporary culture. There are many brands available and which brand you drink has become a lifestyle statement.Drinking mineral water has become such an integral part of contemporary culture. There are many brands available and which brand you drink has become a lifestyle statement.

One of the repercussions of this healthy drinking culture is the fact that the empty plastic water bottles are littering our landscapes and filling up our landfill sites at an incredible rate.

Currently at airports we are not allowed to take water bottles through security check points, and thousands of empty or half-full bottles are collected.

For Design Miami 07 I created a new piece of work for the first time, which focused on the overlooked sculptural beauty of these plastic water containers.

I cut a small detail section (the base) from approximately 1800 bottles (collected from Stansted airport, London) and placed them in a cement mixer containing sand and water. This slightly modified the visual appearance of the plastic by creating a sandblasted quality which made the plastic appear like frosted glass.

From scaled drawings I put together a water drop shaped chandelier over 3 days. The audience was also encouraged to donate their empty water bottles just in case we ran short during the production.

Posted by Rupinder Bhogal