"Discover the Potential" Lamps By Chris Beeston
Lamps By Chris Beeston
Foreland Editions:
Chris Beeston, “Discover the Potential,” 2023
Plastic containers, LEDs, electronic components, steel hardware, 3D printed parts, cubic zirconia.
Edition of 25; each piece is unique and signed.
$575
For purchase inquiries, please contact gallery@forelandcatskill.com. All sales go directly to the artist.
Foreland is thrilled to announce “Foreland Editions,” a new initiative bringing limited editions from our favorite artists to Foreland’s Catskill audience. Our inaugural project, “Discover the Potential,” is a lamp by New York-based artist Chris Beeston offered in an edition of 25. This work marks the artist’s first limited-edition work.
Having dabbled with electric lighting components in his work since 2010, Beeston first made a small lamp out of a plastic food container sourced from a dollar store near his house in 2016. This sparked an obsession with
scouring New York dollar stores for the best containers, with special attention to unique shapes, floral decorations, bright colors, and inspirational brand slogans. Beeston shops internationally as well, checking out local discount stores wherever he happens to travel. He also sources authentic vintage Tupperware® containers on eBay, praising their robust construction and nostalgia-coded silhouettes.
In planning his first large edition of lamps, Beeston shopped with Foreland’s executive director Stef Halmos at his favorite Brooklyn dollar store: Dollar Junction on DeKalb Avenue in Bed-Stuy. They “hit the jackpot,” finding a huge selection of three-container sets from Turkish manufacturer Çankaya Plastik. Using containers from the same product line allowed him to shuffle the lids, so each lamp is a unique combination of colors. The lamps are dimmable, a first in Beeston’s work, and the containers are meticulously assembled with steel hardware, brass rods, wire, LEDs, and heatsinks. The lamps also feature custom 3D-printed legs and dimmer knobs, which are color-accented with inset cubic zirconia gemstones. Çankaya’s inspirational brand slogan (molded into each container) became the title for the edition: “Discover the Potential.”
CHRIS BEESTON grew up in North Carolina and moved to New York after receiving a BA in Studio Art from Davidson College in 2008. Initially drawn to making intricate geometric sculptures, his current fascination with
home appliances highlights a belief that people desire deeper, more emotional connections with their surroundings. His studio is currently located in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. His work has been exhibited at Patrick Parrish Gallery, Fisher Parrish Gallery, Coustof Waxman, Colette, and The Hole.