Jan Slothouber en William Graatsma weren’t artists. Art rather became what they were already making.
As early as 1955 they worked together to create a visual identity for the dutch mining corporation DSM. Because DSM was a national company, they wanted it to communicate with a shape they saw as democratic. So they based the design completely on the cube (with the hexagon as its two dimensional representation).
When in the sixties, especially in the Netherlands, art became more and more geometric, it evolved into what Slothouber en Graatsma had already been doing. It was much to their own surprise, when in 1970 they were chosen to represent the Netherlands on the prestigious Biënnale in Venice.
This “Puzzellamp” was a give away by DSM to show their product ABS plastic. The design symbolises a molecular structure. It’s a puzzle that can become any shape you can come up with. Letting you decide fits the democratic intentions. You can then use it as a lamp. It emits a very nice light. But if it is also art? I guess you can decide that too.
