While the concentrated light of a spotlight compels us to take center stage, the soft glow of a shaded lamp invites us to decompress and settle in. Through his new collections Touch and Strut, Coil + Drift founder John Sorensen-Jolink explores how different lighting can affect a room and its inhabitants. Presented together in Lookout, a new exhibition at Colony in New York, contrasts intentional illumination with atmospheric glow.
Photography by Haley Birt
As a contemporary dancer turned designer, Sorensen-Jolink understands the significance of light. Whether guiding focus, capturing movement, or establishing an ambiance, lighting shifts people’s experience of a space. He explores this relationship in Touch and Strut, working with a specialized team of in-house artisans to translate his understanding of movement and space into sculptural lighting.
Photography by Haley Birt
Touch reimagines the spotlight as a domestic object, inspired by Sorensen-Jolink’s early encounters with theatrical lighting. Growing up in a home renovated by a theater worker, he was surrounded by dimly lit interiors, where recessed and track lighting cast concentrated pools of light. Though initially resistant to this dominant, impersonal light source, Sorensen-Jolink returns to the spotlight with a hands-on approach in Touch.
Photography by Haley Birt
Constructed primarily from brass or steel, Touch features adjustable, cylindrical shades and slender stems that allow users to pivot the beams, while wooden accents emphasize tactility. Rather than remaining fixed, Touch allows light to shift in response to the room, balancing mechanical precision with the intimacy of human touch.
Photography by Haley Birt
“When you’re in a pool of light, you’re on, you’re performing,” Sorensen-Jolink explains. “When you step out, you can sort of disappear.”
Photography by Haley Birt
While Touch fosters focus, Strut introduces a quiet ambiance intended to support the everyday rhythm of a home. Inspired by the exposed wooden frameworks of fire lookout towers across the Catskill and Rocky Mountains, the collection translates this quiet utility into wooden lighting fixtures with subtle metal detailing and intentional use of negative space. Elongated linen shades, inspired in part by Sorensen-Jolink’s collection of vintage cloth-shaded lamps, emit an enveloping glow reminiscent of an ember or campfire.
Photography by Haley Birt
Together, the collections embody two contrasting approaches to illumination, informed by the changing light surrounding Sorensen-Jolink’s Catskills studio. Through their distinct forms and materials, Touch and Strut balance focused illumination with softer, ambient light, introducing the natural rhythms of sun and shade into the home.
Photography by Haley Birt
Lookout is on view until Oct. 21 at Colony Gallery in New York City.
