Sébastien Léon, “Red”, Light Sculpture, 2021

Léon first explored blown glass in 2019 when he released Geochrom, a capsule collection of lighting shown at Design Miami in collaboration with the world’s largest gemstone mining company, Gemfields.

Léon’s idiosyncratic multi-disciplinary work – painting, music, design – results from an inspired melange of chaos and logic. In the case of Hydrochrom, Leon brought his vision to life by creating freely assembled clusters composed of a synthesis of different sized glass cubes.

Some of these assemblages are then transformed into tabletop and suspension lighting, through the use of custom lightsaber shaped LED fixtures piercing through the core of the glass, revealing their ocean-like texture. Without the lighting component, others act as pure glass sculptures. Finally, some are transformed into sound sculptures, playing an original ambient oceanic soundtrack, allowing the glass to be translated into a sonic medium.

Between the blue bubbly glass texture and the naming of the pieces after different seas, Hydrochrom is an ode to the ocean.