Fits & Folds: Dana Harel Unveils Sculptural Lighting Collection

Dana Harel embraces spontaneity. The San Francisco–based Israeli designer began her career as an architect, later delving into ceramics, line art, and now luminaires. The first lighting collection from her studio, White Dirt, encompasses three tented table lamps (Ora I, II, and III) and a suspended, trapeze-like floor lamp (Ora IV), their hand-carved sculptural swagger spawned from Harel’s existing vases and vessels. Crafted of gypsum cement, muslin, and brass, the lamps evoke draped wedding gowns, moments of cloistered intimacy, and the tension between revealing and hiding. But the most surprising reference comes from a scene in HBO’s Succession where Tom Wambsgans and Cousin Greg devour rare if repellant delicacies (deep-fried whole songbird) with napkins tented on their heads (“Some say it is to mask the shame; others to heighten the pleasure,” Wambsgans opines darkly). For Harel, “Working with fabric—folding, pleating, draping—was new and refreshing. It was nice to put aside my chisel and hammer and play with light, soft materials.”