The Urchins | Mr X Stitch

There’s certainly some really spectacular things going on in the world of lace right now. Following on from some of my previous Adventures over the past few months, I’ve come across another amazing large-scale lace installation to bring you this month – Choi+Shine Architects The Urchins. It was only a few months ago that I featured Choi+Shine’s The Lace & they’re back with another stunning lace installation. The Urchins was created in response to a call for art installations to form Marina Bay, Singapore’s iLight Festival 2017. In Choi +Shine’s description of the concept for the piece we learn this project is inspired by sea urchin shells, which are enclosed yet light weight, delicate and open. Their textured and permeable surface interacting with light creates openness, while the pattern’s mathematical repetition brings visual rhythm and harmony. Against light, the sea urchin natural form reveals one of the most spectacular patterns found in nature. The project mimics this orderly, repetitive pattern and soft forms, achieving a visual harmony from the contrast between nature and the man-made environment, and between the firmly grounded masculine skyscrapers and the hovering feminine object. The Urchins Photo Credit: Choi+Shine The lace urchins are constructed from woven double braided polyester chord, illuminated by white spotlights. Each urchin uses around 17,000 metres of chord. The shell is held in tension over an aluminium frame. The structures are lightweight allowing the suspension cables to be fine, creating the illusion that they are floating in mid air. The Urchins interact with the natural light during the day, and glow when illuminated at night. The Urchins Photo Credit: Choi+Shine The Urchins Photo Credit: Choi+Shine At night, the mysteriously hovering and glowing large Urchins create a sense of magic as if time has stopped. When viewers enter into the Urchins, they will be surrounded by a single layer of glowing, lacy surface, where they can enjoy the detail and texture of the Urchins and see the city, water and the sky through this visual filter. Seeing hovering and glowing lacy objects against majestic skyscrapers and dark water would make them pause and gaze. This momentary pause of the mundane routine of our life would hopefully give us an opportunity to find the poetry around us. The Urchins Photo Credit: Choi+Shine The Urchins Photo Credit: Choi+Shine These giant lace urchins are indeed magical, even more so I feel against the urban landscape. The Urchins is doing what I love about all the large scale lace installations that I have explored; it brings lace away from the oftentimes hidden, small scale and magnifies its beauty, giving it the public visibility that it deserves. Check out Choi+Shine Architects' website for more of their stunning work.