With a robust programme of talks, workshops, musical performances and many other events, Fort Greene-based Head Hi is much more than the city’s go-to architecture and design bookshop or a popular espresso bar right next to the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
The platform is perhaps best known for its annual Lamp Show: an open-call for designs turned group shows that highlight original concepts by a diverse range of talents from around the world. Co-founders Alexandra Hodkowski and Alvaro Alcocer sort through hundreds, even thousands, of submission to form a selection of works that exemplify a wide range of background, skill-level, conceptual ideation, and material exploration.
'With participants from diverse corners of the globe, each annual exhibition unveils through-lines that interestingly transcend geographical boundaries yet at the same time share culture,' says Hodkowski. 'As curators of the show we look to select designs that evoke collective participation, celebration and experimentation.'
Owing, in part, to the project growing exponentially each year, the pair chose to stage this year’s edition during New York Design Week 2024 (17-19 May) and expand beyond their own wall to a prime location in Tribeca, increasingly New York’s main art and design district.
'We are hosting the show at 102 Franklin, a historic loft space in Tribeca,' Hodkowski explains. 'To us, this type of space epitomizes the essence of New York’s creative allure and captures the open, bohemian atmosphere that has long defined and inspired the city's experimental communities.'
Helmed by creative multi-hyphenates Arley Marks and Sarah Meyohas, 102 Franklin is a multipurpose event space that, like Head Hi in Brooklyn, hosts a wide variety of programming.
'Although our curation goals are always to include newness and stylistic distinction (meaning each lamp is different from the next), this year we are seeing beautiful metals, a raw sense of humor, and an architectural presence,' Hodkowski adds. “Many of the lamps establish an intimate connection with the observer, fostering meaningful engagements and unspoken dialogue.
This year’s edition features a whopping 54 individual concepts including both motorized and sensory-activated variations. Exhibitors include up-and-coming Istanbul-based studio Animate Objects and New York based talents Caroline Chao—also showing at ICFF/Wanted—and Gregory Beson—who has a solo show on view down the road at Verso gallery. Among the international cohort are emerging and established names that all equally push the envelope of what can be achieved with this increasingly malleable typology.
Head Hi's Lamp Show is on view during New York Design Week, from 17-19 May 2024
102 Franklin St
New York, NY 10013
