Metal and Stone Lamp (Conical)

The Metal and Stone lamp, first seen at Geoffrey Bawa’s home in Colombo, was created for a specific purpose—to highlight a beautiful metal artefact gifted to him by a dear friend.

For Bawa, who wanted to honour both the object and what it stood for, it was not enough to simply set it on a table. His instinct was to elevate cherished objects and animate spaces with them. With that in mind, Bawa picked up a granite block he found lying around, placed the artefact on it, and thought: well, this deserves light. That impulse led to the addition of a base for the rock, a slender rod behind it, and mounted on that rod, a cone that would gently direct the light downwards onto the sculpture. It was object theatre at its enchanting, evocative best.

The earliest version of this lamp was the result of a collaboration between Bawa and Dunstan, a metalworker from Beruwela. Subsequently, other versions of it were used in the Kandalama Hotel’s Kanchana Lounge.

Phantom Hands’ re-edition of this lamp honours the Sri Lankan master’s understanding that the lamp is an open-ended invitation to engage—to place something you love in the spotlight, and in doing so, turn a static object into a personal dialogue.

In keeping with contemporary needs, our re-edition replaces the solid granite of the original with a lightweight composite, developed through experiments with stone and concrete aggregates, by Phantom Hands’ research team. The original’s galvanised iron components have been replaced with machined stainless steel and aluminium. The lamp is available in a clear natural finish, or a black, powder-coated finish.