Ceiling light

item details

NameCeiling light

ProductionErnst Plischke; designer; 1951-1956; New Zealand

Classificationlampshades, downlights

Materialsaluminium

Materials Summaryspun aluminium with hand cut circular piercings and white painted interior surface

Techniquesmetalworking

DimensionsOverall: 305mm (width), 380mm (height), 305mm (depth), 305mm (diameter)

Registration NumberGH012104

Credit linePurchased 2009

Overview

Architect Ernst Plischke designed a series of lights for the interior of St Martin’s Presbyterian Church in Christchurch. Together with the building’s low wooden stalls and coloured glass windows, they helped create a warm and subtly domestic space.

For Plischke, bringing architecture and design together was more than just an aesthetic choice. He believed it could help create a near-spiritual intensity of experience, in the house of God as in any other:

The world of space and form, of light and colour is autonomous and able to express human experiences as intensely as any other form of art.

Ernst Plischke, ‘Building of Churches’, 1961

St Martin’s was one of several churches Plischke designed in New Zealand. Born in Austria, he was one of a wave of immigrants who left Europe following the outbreak of World War II. He arrived in New Zealand in 1939, and vigorously promoted modernism in this country until he returned to Vienna in 1963.