Design | Antonella Cimatti: Shadow Lamps | CFile - Contemporary Ceramic Art + Design

“Ghost” (pictured above) is a conceptual series of installations for the interior designed by Antonella Cimatti in collaboration with Manzi and Zanotti Design Studio in 2014.

The idea is to showcase common objects around us: a lamp or a teapot with cups representing a widely shared stereotype of ceramics. When switched on her lamp projects its shadow instead of lighting up, creating a magical illusion.

This ambient lighting creates an atmosphere and straddles the border between art and design. The work gives life to shadows, creating “illusionary” and lightweight ceramic art to enhance and enrich space and engage the viewer.

The material used is 0.6 mm sintered alumina, a highly translucent advanced ceramic material. It is fired at 1600 degrees, laser cut, attached to the wall at 90 degrees and under-lit.

Cimatti has continued her shadow play in “Butterflies,” which is made from slip-cast porcelain paper-clay, hand built, and glazed. She designed the project in 2011.

“I continue my research using porcelain slip to create illusionary and lightweight artworks that reference the ephemeral nature of ceramics. The Butterflies on the wall are born of a combination of one porcelain wing and the other which is created only virtually, by it’s own shadow. Poetry and emotion are the principal elements of the installations: the butterflies are created by their own shadows.One part of the work is real while the other is temporary because the shadows are ephemeral and elusive.”

Faenza-born Antonella Cimatti was a student of Carlo Zauli at the Istituto d’Arte (State School of Ceramics) in Faenza and also received a degree with distinction from the Accademia di Belle Arti (Fine Arts Academy) in Bologna. She has been teaching Design at the Istituto d’Arte since 1979 and exhibits internationally.

Above image: Ghost by Antonella Cimatti.

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