Santa Claus: Seasonal Lighting - Atelier 81

The BIZ entrepreneurs on Oude Binnenweg in Rotterdam had adopted Paul McCarthy's Santa Claus sculpture years earlier. They wanted seasonal lighting that reflected their pride in this controversial piece—essentially Christmas decorations referencing that sculpture.

The assignment felt flat. And it came with copyright issues. You can't just reproduce McCarthy's work in street lighting.

So I designed forms that had a clear relationship to the sculpture's elements—the bell, that torch (let's leave what that attribute actually represents open for interpretation)—but abstracted them into modular shapes. Stack them vertically in different color combinations and they read as cheerful Christmas trees for passersby who don't know the reference.

For those who do know McCarthy's work, the connection is there. The shape, the stacked elements, that slightly subversive humor. But we solved it without legal problems and without making it too explicit for a public street.

The design works on multiple levels: festive lighting for shoppers, insider reference for art audiences, practical solution for the client. That's how I approach commissioned work—find what's actually interesting in the assignment rather than executing the obvious version.