The end of the Mayan long count calendar on December 21 this year and the doomsday prophecies that surround the day have us all on the edge a bit with the more jittery of us trying to do our best to lead as normal a life as we possibly can. However, for many people, the signs of the end of days have already begun to manifest and many believe that nations around the world are begging to pay their karmic debt via their encounters with natural disasters.
However, there is also an all too human aspect to these natural disasters where man-built structures and things contribute to the intensity of these disasters. The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami was one such event that caused widespread devastation in Japan and caused a few of the nuclear reactors at the Fukushima plant to go into meltdown.
As ghastly and gory as this scenario and its results were, it inspired Swedish designer Johan Lindstén to create a strange tribute to celebrate the triumph of life over death. Dubbed Meltdown, Lindstén’s range of pendant lamps for the brand Cappellini are actually an eerie depiction of what a nuclear meltdown would look like. Even though we’re pretty sure that the glass covering the exterior of bulbs and lamps would be shattered by the impact of a shock wave from a nuclear disaster, the designer has chosen to show the impact of strong nuclear radiation in a different way.
The glass used in his pendant lights seems to be literally melting off forming a strangely fascinating dropping patterns that shows the impact of the radiation while highlighting the resistance of something as fragile as glass in extreme conditions. As a metaphor, you couldn’t find a more apt one to show how fragile yet resilient life on this planet is!