Put four SOX lamps in a room, turn off everything else, and the space transforms. Clothing, skin, food, flowers, art on the walls: everything becomes yellow and black. Red becomes indistinguishable from green. White wine looks the same as red. The longer you stay, the more your brain adapts. The yellow becomes your new normal.

As long as no other light gets in, the effect is immediate and total. Artist Olafur Eliasson built entire installations around it, filled the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern with two hundred of these lamps. Earlier this year, the work was shown at the Van Gogh Museum.

Four lamps are enough to fully transform a room.

SOX is a gas discharge lamp that emits light at exactly one wavelength: 589 nanometers. Pure yellow. No red, no blue, no green. Everything becomes shades of yellow and black.

The technology was developed by Philips in Eindhoven in 1931. A year later, the world's first sodium street lighting was installed between Beek and Geleen in South Limburg. Then everywhere: motorways, industrial zones, cities across Europe.

In 2019, Philips ceased production for good. One factory in China still makes them. Global stock dwindles every year.

• 4× Philips SRS 201 street light fixtures, each with its own cable and plug
• 55W SOX lamps (7,800 lumens each)
• Each fixture operates independently — plug into any standard 230V socket
• Suitable for indoor and outdoor use
• Warm-up time: 10–15 minutes — first a faint pink glow, then slowly that full yellow

€225 per day for the complete set of four lamps, VAT included. Multi-day rates on request.

Collect and return at the same address in Amsterdam-Oost (near Carré). Fixtures weigh 9.5 kg each; a car is required. Deposit: €200.

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