Gravity Descends

Metal chains squeeze bulbous glass forms, and porcelain freezes in amorphous, curling ribbons. The thrill of Lindsey Adelman’s latest body of work,“The Hardware Diaries,” is in the sense of precariousness brought on by the materials and shapes: tough and soft, hard and delicate, all twisted together.The tension is palpable taking in the view at The Future Perfect in New York. It almost feels like a nice bonus, only slightly in defiance of physical laws, that these are all, indeed, functional lighting fixtures.

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From the outset, Adelman’s aim was to channel the caprice and conflict of nature, and by extension the human condition. In the imposing “Suspended Assemblage 1” a puddle-shaped plane of brass floats on the ceiling, adorned with a mass of coiling porcelain resembling fungi, snaking around overhead lights. Hanging down at different lengths, like fruits on the vine, are the four main light sources—deformed spheroid hunks of glass, entangled in various chains.

“I see it as this more masculine energy,” Adelman says of the hardware. “It's supportive and ordered and can represent society, or norms.” As for its inverse: “Glass is illuminating, and sort of oozy, and the porcelain is that as well. It represents this feminine liberation.” Only with both poles in play can the material energies tilt toward equilibrium. The tension between the two is key—both in the literal designs and their more abstract significance. “We're always breaking free of these constraints and of any kind of rational system, which can be cage-like or restrictive,” she says. “Those are paired with [materials that] are wild and uncontrollable, ones that are glowing and fluid and unruly, rebellious, voluptuous, pleasurable.”

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I ask Adelman what she feels about the universal appeal in this divergent coupling, of the conventionally masculine and feminine. It holds across disciplines, too—as with, say, leather and lace. “We see it in nature all the time,” she points out. “We'll see lush, soft grass growing around a rock, or we'll see a gnarly bark on a tree and then soft, electric-green moss going up the side.”

Beyond their innate mystique, Adelman’s realized visions, all completed in 2025, are marvels of scale and technical prowess. One fixture stretches nearly five stories, dangling down through the townhouse-gallery's central stairwell. Two “Shard Pendant” chandeliers are affixed with the broken shards of plates. The “Chain Swag Sconce” combines two tubular lights draped in gold chain mesh, like a necklace cascading over collarbones. Complementing all these are a range of early sketches that served as blueprints for the pieces on view. (In executing them, Adelman credits collaborations with various skill-specific artisans.)

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Taking in all of the enigmatic, organic forms throughout the show, you’d be correct to detect a note of existential meditation. “We have our own laws and systems and ways of constructing a built environment,” says the artist. “But ultimately, nature reclaims us.” 

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‍“The Hardware Diaries” is on view through June 16, 2025 at The Future Perfect by appointment only.

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