Artwork lighting design LOVE YOUR DEPOT

Our design studio assisted artist Jewyo Rhii, Korean Artist of the Year 2020, with her exhibition, Love You Depot.

Love Your Depot is an experimental scheme that both accommodates and exhibits artworks within a single compounded space, contradicting traditional types of archives. This exhibit is part of an ongoing project that earned Rhii the 2019 Korea Artist Prize for her show at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul. The exhibition at the Korean Cultural Centre in London presents a combination of physical storage space for artworks and a workspace for creative activities.

Moreover, Rhii also brings the show into the digital realm by creating an associated online platform. As a result, she produced both a physical and virtual exhibit for people to interact with. All the gallery spaces were cleverly converted using modular steel structures to resemble the feel of a storage depot.

Rhii also conveys the show to the digital realm by creating an associated online platform.

Unlike a typical storage depot, this contemporary exhibit displayed various works by the artist. These include paintings, drawings, fragmented sculptures, and video installations. Therefore, it was essential to the artist that the gallery lighting recreate a bright industrial atmosphere resembling a distinctive depot or storage environment.

The 6000K LED light battens we had previously specified for wall-washing projects could be used to create the desired exhibition lighting effect. We also reinforced the exhibition lighting in certain areas with 6000K LED spotlights.

This again showed the flexibility of the lighting system we had designed for the various galleries and exhibition spaces. The investment in the installation of a well-spaced lighting track across all of the gallery spaces enabled the LED battens to be plugged in wherever the light was required. We understand that flexibility and functionality are crucial when effectively illuminating artwork on display. The artist had an exact conceptual idea of how the depot artwork lighting design should look. While taking into account the key considerations when designing art lighting, we tested various lighting layout options for the artist to reflect on before each space was specified.

The final lighting installation replicates precisely the impact of lighting she required for a warehouse or industrial setting. As a result, the quality of the lighting (CRI 90 and 95) provided accurate colour rendering for the various artworks to be viewed and enjoyed. Jewyo Rhii and the exhibit curator were overjoyed with the visual lighting effect and results of the artwork’s lighting design. Rhii remarked how impressed she was that the Korean Cultural Centre used a professional lighting design for her exhibit.

The Fund for Korean Artists Abroad, the Korean Arts Management Service, and the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sport, and Tourism contributed.