In the Flemmish Primitive painting of the newly wed couple ‘Arnolfini’ you will find many symbols referring to their status, wealth and religion, all pillars of society that still are quite accurate, and one of them is the famous chandelier hanging with only one candle burning … the eye of god. Arnolfino’s Chandelier by Venini is the 21th century equivalent. This time fully enlightened so anyone can see.

In follow up of the 2007 collection Homework, Studio Job created ‘Arnolfini’ for Italian glass makers Venini. In the Homework collection they created new sculptures by piling and stacking everyday objects and putting them on a precious pedestal. Arnolfini echoes this approach and is about threading the glass objects on a polished framework like beadwork until, in this case, a mysterious chandelier appears.

Through these archetypes and icons of times got by the artist builds his own universe: the castle, the sculpture and the landscape; a vocabulary sculpted in material instead of words. The trivial objects of everyday life become elevated. A frog becomes a prince, and an egg cup becomes a chandelier. Alessandro Mendini wrote about Studio Job’s work that ‘a product stripped from function becomes a part of the still life. A chandelier as a floating still life.’

“Around two years ago, during a dinner in the skyscraper of Mies van der Rohe, the Seagram Building, an important New York collector asked us if we might be interested in cooperating with the most famous glass works manufacturer in the world: Venini. We were immediately inspired to follow in the footsteps of the grandmasters Ponti, Mendini and Sottsass. Shortly after, arriving at Hotel Danieli in Venice and staying at a suite from 17th century with view on the canal, I took a boat to Murano to visit the empire of Venice, with its sacred glass furnaces. Now the time came to view the first result of our cooperation the prototype of a monumental chandelier will be exhibited Venini-style at the overwhelming Museum Bagatti Valsecchi.”

“This chandelier fits Studio Job’s body of work like a glove. But if somebody should ask us why we beaded pots and pans on a typical chandelier framework, it conceivably is inspired by surreal memories that become monumental icons as time goes by.”

– Job Smeets, February 2010