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Most people pick up magnets, postcards, and snow globes on their travels. Ceramist and jewelry designer Eny Lee Parker collects vintage lampshades. Over the course of the past year, she’s traveled to Paris, Boston, and Philadelphia, as well as Georgia, Rhode Island, and Virginia, slowly adding to her assortment of quirky accents. Her latest body of work, titled “Internalizing,” which is currently on view at the showroom Love House in New York, puts these accessories to use.
“The craft of making shades is underrated,” says Parker. As her assemblage grew, she started brainstorming ways to give the pieces new life. In line with her lighthearted style, the result is totally unexpected. The Brooklyn-based artist gathered her tiniest shades and put them on oversize ceramic bases.
The inspiration for the micro-macro look came from 19th-century anatomical illustrations. “I was very drawn to the formation and shapes of cells,” she shares. One of the pieces in the series is a white column with two sections encircled by pleated shades—scored at a French vintage shop—on brushed-brass necks. The object is part totem, part creature. Also in the mix: two terracotta fixtures with mountainous silhouettes, spins on Parker’s Instagram-famous Oo lamps.
Prices for the items range from $1,800 to $14,000. (In addition to lamps, there’s a squiggly wall planter and playful side table for sale.) However, the idea we’re walking away with—why not put teeny, tiny shades on regular-size lamps?—is completely free.
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