In 2025 I produced a commissioned artwork for a new restaurant called Tambourine on Harrington Street in Cape Town. Tambourine is the latest project by Tobias Alter, owner of the Gorgeous George Hotel, who commissioned our African Robots & SPACECRAFT artwork Shapeshifting Chandelier, installed at the hotel in 2023.
Tobi was interested in our work with dichroic filters, developed during our project SUN for City of Cape Town, with Lorenzo Nassimbeni. Lorenzo and I had worked on the design of SUN over a period of years, and just before it was to be fabricated and installed, the City had to cancel several of their urban upgrade projects due to problems with their contractors, our site amongst them.
Dichroic material (architectural glass or a plastic film) reflects and refracts light in such a way that different colours appear from different angles – mainly between magenta and yellow. It has an effect a bit like light reflecting off oily water (you sometime see this in puddles in the street). It was developed for the aerospace industry, as an antiradiation coating on the windscreens of spaceships!
For Tambourine, I designed a system of 20 discs cut from Plexiglass and coated with dichroic film, suspended in adjustable brackets from the reflective metallic ceiling of the restaurant. They’re arranged in such a way that they can be illuminated by just two special narrow-beam spotlights (from Evica Direct). Light from the two spotlights reflects from disc to disc and creates compound pools of light on the upper walls of the restaurant.
I think of this as a form of light painting, a fresco in coloured light. Though the lights and discs are static, there’s a feeling of animation about the installation – I think because our minds sense that there is movement in the bouncing of light across the ceiling, though of course much too fast to be perceived. We’ve tried out a bit of vape smoke in there, before the restaurant opened, and it looks pretty cool… we should bring a smoke machine in for a party sometime.
The project for me was really successful in that it met my objective to be interesting yet not distracting, to be beautiful but not impose on the space. The main feature of the restaurant is its food, and socialising with your friends. Feedback from staff and patrons has been very favourable – we really have created something with a unique feel.
Thanks to Amnova for their work fabricating the 3D-printed connectors for the brackets, which we designed together. Lasercutting by Numerical Creations, aluminium tubing from SalBev, bending of stainless steel members by Pure Steel and aluminium anodising by Cape Anodisers. And thanks to Tobi for the commission.