Ontwerp voor een zilveren lamp in de vorm van een vogel 1874 - 1932

Mathieu Lauweriks sketched this design for a silver bird-shaped lamp, likely on paper with graphite. I love that this is a plan for something. You can see the bare bones of intention. It looks technical, all worked out with a grid. I find it satisfying, the precision, the clarity, and how the design is repeated from different angles. The idea of something appearing in multiple versions, as possibilities. There’s a strange combination of the industrial with the natural. You have this geometric structure overlaid on the curves of the bird’s neck, beak, and tail. It is as though Lauweriks is thinking: how can I find the geometry inherent in nature? Can you see the underlying forms? Can a drawing itself be a kind of tool? When artists draw they are testing out ideas, turning things over in their minds. I imagine this artist finding the places where the geometric and the organic meet. And what does it mean that he wanted to make it into a lamp?