Christmas Tree Installation 2023: Power Plant

Every year, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London commissions a Christmas tree-inspired artwork to deck its halls. This time it’s the turn of designers Isabel Gibson and Helen Chesner, who work under the moniker Isabel + Helen. The duo have adorned the museum’s Cromwell Road entrance hall with a four-metre-tall kinetic sculpture titled Power Plant (until 6 January 2024). Repurposed propellors and fans power a system of lights that turn in slow orbit: a nod, perhaps, to the V&A’s beginnings as a home to both the sciences and the decorative arts – it opened in 1852 as the Museum of Manufactures – while its movement recalls the orbit of planets and those festive centrepieces in which a candle’s heat rotates a chime-laden carousel. Find out more on the V&A’s website.

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