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Omer Arbel
"We see our role as inventors of a procedure or a technique rather than inventors of a form. We allow technique to reveal form."
Omer Arbel’s work is drawn organically from the nature and characteristics of its media in much the way Arbel himself was carved from the events of his life.
Born in Jerusalem, Israel, his family moved to Vancouver, Canada when Arbel was thirteen. In his youth, he became a nationally-ranked championship fencer, interpreting into athleticism the elan and finesse that would one day mark his designs. He earned a B.Sc. in Environmental Science from the University of Waterloo in 1997, developing the scientific approach that would define his design experiments.
Each Omer Arbel project begins with the materials. Instead of visualizing a concept and finding the medium to suit it, he chooses a material and then finds what he can draw out of it. Each project is numbered, in sequence, and the lucky few experiments that become lights or furniture or even houses (23.2, located in South Surrey, British Columbia) bear their numbers as names, so that their essential identities are not inflicted upon them by linguistic metaphor.
Omer Arbel has earned many awards and received many richly-deserved honours, not least of which was being selected to co-design the medals for the 2010 Olympic games in Vancouver--and yet, his motivation remains the work, and the celebration of inner life of each individual material. This humble commitment is what gives his work such vitality while remaining grounded, the perfect balance of concept and reality.
Lights Designed by Omer Arbel
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