BLOW has been awarded the Silver A’ Design Award 2018 in the Arts, Crafts and Ready-Made Design category.

Boasting a rather prestigious lineage, BLOW still retains some of the traits of its illustrious ancestors.

From the bas reliefs of the Horologion of Andronikos Kyrrhestes in Athens to the Roman mosaics of Aeolus in Meknes-El Menzeh in Morocco, from Jan Jansson’s ‘Map of the Winds’ to paintings of the Flemish school of the 17th century, from Tiepolo’s ‘The Winds’ at Palazzo Labia to the Victorian maps of the British empire, those puffy cheeks have blustered their way through centuries of visual imagery to the present day.

Though it references the elaborate sceneries of thespian productions, where an anthropomorphic representation of the wind would blow papier-mâché clouds across the stage, its strongest connection is to a narrower definition of theatricality. There is an extravagantly histrionic quality to BLOW.

For its small dimensions, it is showy. Like an actor with a diminutive stature and a surprisingly booming voice.
It takes an everyday action – such as snuffing out a candle – and turns into a performance.
And what could be more dramatic than switching from light to darkness?

For all its apparent simplicity, there is magic in the genuine surprise when squeezing the rubber bulb and seeing the flame extinguished. It’s an instant trigger for playfulness.
BLOW is a return to the spirit of childhood, the barely contained excitement of being handed the controls and the forbidden idea of playing with fire.