news
  • 15.3.2024 – 13.10.2024
    new project , exhibition

    "Water Pressure - Designing for the future" an exhibition of the MK&G Hamburg and Jane Withers Studio – looks at the water crisis from a global perspective. We were commissioned to come up with an installation celebrating water. The result "vital rain" is part of the exhibition and will stay permanently in the museums yard.
    more soon

    MKG Hamburg - Water Pressure

  • april 2024
    new project

    For the glassware company Lobmeyr we designed "ident" - drinking set No.287

    Identical shape, identical height - five individual glasses.
    The series was unveilded during Milan Design Week.

    Lobmeyr

  • april 2024 - ongoing
    factory tour

    We designed the factory tour for Laufen in Gmunden with a lot of details and small installations to guide and inform local and international guests.

    Laufen Gmunden

  • 5.4.2024 - 14.7.2024
    exhibition

    "inWastement" glass series is on show at the Klimabiennale in Vienna at the "design with a purpose" exhibition.

    Klimabiennale Wien

  • 15.9 2023 - 21. 7 2024
    exhibition

    HEIMATEN. An exhibition and survey and an attempt to break with conventional takes on Heimat. the exhibition was shown at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (MK&G) in 2022. Our specially commissioned piece 'riparian cloud' is now also on show in Molfsee.

    Freilichtmuseum Molfsee

  • ongoing
    exhibition

    MAK Design Lab at the Museum of applied Arts in Vienna. Within the permanent Design exhibition one can find a few of our projects like 'the idea of a tree', 'limited moths' or 'LeveL.

    MAK Design Lab

limitedMoths

a project that represents limitation in reality

  • year ongoing since 2008

  • categories Limited Editions
    Products & Furniture

  • commissioned by

    self-intiated

limitedMoths is part of the realLimited series. A rare Austrian moth species is portrait in a specific metal. As a huge swarm, the moths are flying towards a light bulb. Some single moths are placed randomly on the wall. Each moth is numbered and represents one moth left in reality. Each swarm (lamp) is unique. The number of the limited edition derives directly from nature. In dialogue with an Austrian entomologist, the number of specimens of each specific moths species, still occurring in nature, is estimated and reproduced in pure metal. As there is just a countable number of individual moths of that species left in Austria, there is always just a certain amount of lamp installations. A part of the generated money goes to the project ‘Baumpension’ (retired tree) or ‘Naturfreikauf’ (nature retrieval) by the Naturschutzbund Austria, which protects old dying trees as habitat for fungi, moss and insects.

realLimited – general description
Inspired by limited editions, the project realLimited connects limitation back to realistic facts. It is about limite editions that reflect limitations in reality: untouched nature, maintained traditions, old craftsmanship, languages and dialects… The main idea is to get inspired from these limitations, to start using and revitalizing them and to encourage their further being or to mirror and interpret the limitation, if use is not directly possible. realLimited should show that Design can be functional and beautiful, not just in an object, but also for the idea it stands for. The realLimited concept can be applied to several topics as for example: wild nature, old nearly forgotten techniques and craftsmanship or endangered domestic animals, plants and their products. The first executed realLimited-project endangered species are translated into limited editions of products. Each single product, or element of a product, represents one individual being.  A percentage of the money generated by selling the limited editions goes to environmental projects that try to save the selected species. Ideally the editions of products would be re-edited every few years, mirroring the species development. If the population increases in number, the edition does as well.

limitedMoths / catocala conversa in patinated brass

detail limitedMoths, catocala conversa in patinated brass

catocala conversa / image source

patinated brass sheet with laser cut moths, catocala conversa

detailed view of the illuminated lamp, catocala conversa in patinated brass

the illuminated lamp, catocala conversa in patinated brass

first edition limitedMoths / murumba quercus in copper

marumba quercus / image source

detail of the first limitedMoths, murumba quercus in copper

detailed view of the illuminated lamp, murumba quercus in copper

A rare Austrian moth species is portrait in a specific metal. As a huge swarm, the moths are flying towards a light bulb.

the wings are bent, that the moths look more natural

rivetting of the first limitedMoths, murumba quercus in copper

limitedMoths / hypomecis danieli in sandblasted stainless steel

detail of limitedMoths, hypomecis danieli in sandblasted stainless steel

hypomecis danieli / image source

whole wall lamp, hypomecis danieli in sandblasted stainless steel

Each moth is numbered and represents one moth left in reality. Each swarm is unique.

detailed view of the illuminated lamp, hypomecis danieli in sandblasted stainless steel

limitedMoths / pyrois cinnamomea in sandblasted copper

detail of one limitedMoth, pyrois cinnamomea in sandblasted copper

pyrois cinnamomea / image source

detailed view of the illuminated lamp, pyrois cinnamomea in sandblasted copper

water jet cutted moths, pyrois cinnamomea in sandblasted copper

front view of the lamp, pyrois cinnamomea in sandblasted copper

limitedMoths / trigonophora flammea in patinated brass

detail of limitedMoths, trigonophora flammea in patinated brass

trigonophora flammea / image source

laser cut moths, catocala conversa in patinated brass

  • material

    brass (laser cut, patinated, handrivetted)
    copper (laser cut, handrivetted, sandblasted)
    stainless steel (laser cut, handrivetted, sandblasted)

     

    electronics for lamp

  • dimension

    core lamp: 65 x 30 x 35 cm

    whole installation with single moths: approx. 120 x 100 x 35 cm

  • links

  • production

    limited edition,
    varying between 4-5 lamps per species – depending on the estimated single specimen still left in Austria

  • team

    Katharina Mischer, Thomas Traxler, Maria Bauhofer, Anais Bourcier