Julia Lohmann believes that acknowledging the origins of a product is the first step towards making more informed and ethical choices about what we consume. The designer finds new applications for otherwise undervalued materials, working primarily with animal materials and byproducts. She designs objects on the threshold between animal material and animal, which probe our attitude towards the creatures we share the earth with and how we use them to sustain us.

Sheep stomachs become beautiful billowing lights, triggering feelings oscillating between attraction and disgust, the former through their warm luminosity and the latter as soon as one learns more about their material origins. Her ceiling light 'Flock,' at left, was made from the stomachs of fifty sheep. Meanwhile, a series of unique handsculpted Cow Benches, each with a different name and shape, serve as memento mori for the cows that died to make the leather they are made from.

Lohmann founded the South London design office studio bec in 2004. She also works as a travel photographer and sessional tutor in Graphic Design at the Surrey Institute of Art & Design.

Julia Lohmann web >

related: Christien Meindertsma >