Lights from the sea side is a project born on a island: The Island of Ærø, in the south of Denmark. An island with a long tradition of sailing and fishing. A rich maritime culture. Everywhere and everything smells of boat.

The vision of the great ocean encompassing the land, the light fall when the winter comes, the chimneys covering the villages in smoke.

With dusk the need of light to prolong the day.  Looking for strong paper to make lampshades, to prolong the day, I found some sea charts in a small antiquity shop. That`s how the project emerged.     

Sea charts and maps guide men and women on land, at sea, and in the sky. Whether they are lost or not, they are searching their way.

For me the light of those objects is like catching a glimpse of land or sea from a place inside calling for a journey, for the way.

The lamps are made with joy and love, one by one, by hand. The model can be reproduced but none of them are identical because each map is unique. Each of the maps has been on board a ship and journeyed far.

I like to think that the light be contemplated the same way as the light at sea far away from land. 

Bastien Méraud 2023 ©