The winner of the LIT awards 2024 ‘Torch’ by Merve Mehan is a deeply poetic conjunction of history, symbolism, and contemporariness. It is an airy medium connecting the human spirit to light through eternity. This torch had symbolized authority, protection, and hope through modern design since ancient times. Twisting the historical symbolism of the torch into a strong statement, Mehan manages to rejuvenate this cultural discourse relevant to today.
For many centuries the torch has had a set of important cultural and symbolic meanings. The torch symbolizes the eternal fight of man for cognition and freedom. The defiant flame of Prometheus stealing fire to make light for mankind is an eternal symbol of rebellion and progress. Merve Mehan is a Turkish designer who plays with this historical heritage in her Award-winning design. Coming from a country that connects Eastern and Western civilizations and having a rich artistic tradition full of ornamentation, Mehan’s works can be considered the perfect embodiment of the keeper of cultural heritage in modern times.
The Torch Collection reimagines these historical symbols as modular chandeliers and lighting. Each one of the light diffusers, stretched in one direction, acts just like an upright flame on a torch, while its layered structure takes inspiration from snowflakes. Snow-just like fire during some moments-has strongly developed metaphorical meaning: fragility, purity, and singularity.
The Mehan collection differs because of “layered” storytelling. The lamps branch three-dimensionally, multiply, like a fractal or growing tree, for modularity to fit in a space. Layering takes its cue from organic snowflake formation in which each segment interconnects, is singular and delicate yet robust. Therein lies a nod toward the harmony between nature and technology as a theme ever more important in today’s design.
Functionally speaking, it is a huge success of design for sustainability. First, the Torch Collection minimizes waste material and focuses on durability through adaptability. The adaptable structural elements expand across great expanses in architecture and contract to very small settings; thus, it has broad limits on design. Mehan’s idea of ecology-sensitive design, guided by cultural philosophy, represents a milestone in light design where artistry meets accountability.
One cannot speak about this collection without mentioning its materiality. The use of textured metal components certainly speaks to the ancient craftsmanship so characteristic in Ottoman and Anatolian heritage-hammered bronze or carved brass, for example. It is the clean geometry and modern surface finish, however, that pushes the design into a contemporary narrative. Diffusers are in crystalline translucency to allow an ambient glow, much like snow from moonlight. Subtle light diffusions meet strong metallic textures in interaction to enhance the poetic soul of this collection.
Merve Mehan’s choice of material is about practicality; the design itself involves energy efficiency, hence the design ensures on purpose, in reaction to the present age of ecological urgency, that the lamp minimizes the use of energy and furthers a longer life cycle.
Light, by the very definition and nature of the word, is defined by its counterpart: shade. The Torch Collection epitomized this very dynamic in that, once lit, their resultant forms transformed spaces into high drama and intimacy, alike-it’s within this transformation that one sees Mehan’s use of Gothic elements. The high, vertical light buildings and the skeletal iron arms have a gigantic feel to them similar to the one produced by the great medieval cathedrals: their light was divine, their shadows induced states of contemplation.
Merve Mehan’s Torch Collection is a bright conversation across historical and contemporary elements in forms that pay homage to the cultural significance of the torch while pushing modular and sustainable design principles. In its most basic form, this collection deals with capturing light, not just light, but light as a carrier of hope, memory, and ingenuity.
As a design critic, I would point to the relevance of Mehan’s oeuvre in view of the fact that each of his works vibrates in tune with the reality of which we want to be part: our history, the natural environment, and surroundings. Besides, the extraordinary refinement and symbolic weight of the ‘Torch Collection’ underlines one plain fact: light is much more than a function; it is a story to which Mehan was approaching with subtlety, purpose, and imagination.
She struck the lamp, so to say, and therefore acted as a guiding star to modern lighting design.
Designer: Merve Mehan
Brand: Waxy Design, Powered By Bahar Lighting
Prize: LIT
