Philippe Parreno’s transparent blown-glass lamp sculptures illuminate a ghostly presence.

The glass lamps evolved from a solo exhibition in Stockholm titled Happy Ending (1996) where Parreno presented an original lamp designed by Eero Saarinen which stood alone within the gallery space. The lamp was designed by Saarinen for an unrealised hotel that was supposed to have been built upon the exact location of the gallery. In the exhibition the lamp was lit but not visibly plugged into an electrical source. At the end of the exhibition the work disappeared.

The following year, for a solo exhibition in Paris, Parreno presented only works made of blown-glass, each of them a re-interpretation of a previous work that no longer exists. The gallery was located in a new building, one with no history, a rarity for Paris. As part of this show Parreno produced an edition of a blown-glass version of the Saarinen lamp entitling them Happy Ending, Stockholm (1996). This glass lamp was set as an edition of 3 plus 2 artist proofs and all five were exhibited. During the exhibition four of the five glass lamps were lost – either broken or stolen. Only one survived and remains in the design collection of the Fonds national d’art contemporain in France.

In their most recent manifestations each glass lamp differs slightly from the other yet continues to directly evoke their erased predecessors. The themes of ghosts, apparitions and absences are a constant in Parreno’s work.