Lexus Showcases a Vision for the Future of Design
The auto manufacturer debuted Liminal Cycles, a series of sculptures by Bratislava-based design studio Crafting Plastics, at Miami Art Week.
Under the neon lights and sepia-toned sunsets of Miami Art Week’s 2024 ballyhoo, few exhibitions shone brighter than Lexus’s collaboration with the Bratislava-based design studio Crafting Plastics. Presented in partnership with Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, the installation, Liminal Cycles, drew inspiration from Lexus’s Lexus Future Zero Catalyst (LF-ZC) concept car, the all-electric sedan built on the Japanese brand’s next-generation architecture and scheduled to debut in 2026. Located in ICA Miami’s sculpture garden throughout Art Week, Liminal Cycles drew on the material approach that has long defined the practice of Crafting Plastics’ co-founders, Vlasta Kubušová and Miroslav Král.
The exhibition’s central design comprised a to-scale, fragmented car sculpture that moved in the rhythm of a contracting and expanding chest drawing heavy breaths, a reference to Lexus’s Software Defined Vehicle concepts and how they connect with the living and material worlds. The principal material, a 3D-printed, biodegradable bioplastic called Nuatan coated with a UV-reactive skin, meant the sculpture changed colours depending on natural light levels or interaction with viewers, who were given UV flashlights to shine on the piece.
“It shows you that vehicles, or objects, in the future can react to the environment but also to the user,” Kubušová says. “Especially for interiors, there is a big opportunity to implement these materials in terms of the surfaces and tactile experience.”
Three satellite installations, inspired by the steering wheel, headrest, and logo of the LF-ZC respectively, incorporated the same UV-reactive bioplastics and multisensorial, interactive approach as the central component. Like the technology incorporated into the LF-ZC’s pioneering interiors, each Liminal Cycles sculpture responded to interactions with ICA patrons by emitting a scent, sound, or sight, demonstrating both Lexus and Crafting Plastics’ visions for the future of design.
