Rooms
installation view of Carbon, Birch, Silver, Rooms at Yossi Milo Gallery (2021)
Vanessa’s Foyer
2021
photographic glass chandelier pieces and painted metal armature
92 in x 21 in x 21 in
detail of Vanessa’s Foyer
Barbara’s Living Room
2021
photographic glass chandelier pieces and painted metal armature
28 in x 22 in x 22 in
detail of Barbara’s Living Room
May’s Living Room
2021
photographic glass chandelier pieces and painted metal armature
5 in x 15 in x 15 in
detail of Lamps Plus
Lamps Plus
2021
photographic glass chandelier pieces and painted metal armature
28 in x 22 in x 22 in
detail of Elaine’s Dining Room
Elaine’s Dining Room
2021
photographic glass chandelier pieces and painted metal armature
28 in x 23 in x 23 in
detail of Lance’s Study
The latter series comprises chandeliers that the artist purchased from different people and that he laboriously transformed into memento mori dedicated to the chambers they once occupied. For each light fixture, Brandt took a 360-degree photograph of the space the object once hung in, then carefully heat-fused every piece of that picture to the chandelier’s separate glass fragments—the lamps appear as though permanently reflecting every single dimension of the parlors in which they used to live.
— ARTFORUM, Matthew Brandt at Yossi Milo Gallery
https://www.artforum.com/print/reviews/202202/matthew-brandt-87651
The repurposed chandeliers in Brandt’s Rooms series represent a “photographic record of the room [they] once occupied.” The artist, while purchasing each used chandelier from the seller, is entrusted to take a panoramic photograph of the room the light fixture was installed in. At his studio, Brandt deconstructs each chandelier and heat-fuses one facet of the photograph into each glass pendant. Once reassembled, the chandelier depicts a recreation of its former owner’s home in 360-degrees. Entitled according to where the chandelier originated -- Barbara's Living Room or Lance's Study -- the individual glass parts become a photographic lens into the room and carry records of their past.
— Juxtapoz, Carbon, Birch, Silver, Rooms: New Works by Matthew Brandt
https://www.juxtapoz.com/news/photography/carbon-birch-silver-rooms-new-works-by-matthew-brandt/
Rooms consists of six reclaimed chandeliers that represent a “photographic record of the room [they] once occupied.” For each used chandelier sold to Brandt, the artist heat-fuses a part of a panoramic photograph of the room in which the chandelier once lived into each glass pendant, so that walking around the light fixture, the viewer sees the chandelier’s former home in a full 360 degrees. Named after the rooms from their past lives, like Lance’s Study and Marissa’s Bedroom, each chandelier holds a memory recalled by light.
— Musee Mag, Exhibition Review: Matthew Brandt: Carbon, Birch, Silver, Rooms by Zoha Baquar