The Japanese designer Nendo starts from the exhibition "Akari Unfolded", which was presented in New York at the Noguchi Museum, to reinterpret the works exhibited by six designers. The result is light pieces in white acrylic that look like fragments of carved stone.
Founded by one of the most famous sculptors of the 20th century, Isamu Noguchi, the Noguchi Museum is located in Queens, New York, and showcases representative examples of his work. The exhibition "Akari Unfolded" features works by six modern designers brought together in homage to the Akari collection. Made with handmade washi paper and bamboo, Akari is one of Isamu Noguchi's most renowned works.
Many of Noguchi's sculptures were directly carved from stone, Akari appear to be true luminous sculptures. Inspired by this, Japanese designer Nendo imagined what would happen if Akari were carved directly from a massive form of light.
The first step of the creation process was to carefully hand carve the white acrylic boards, from opaque to translucent, until they became extremely thin and transparent. Then, the fragments were encased as if floating inside a transparent acrylic cube, and by externally illuminating these pieces, they were represented as "fragments of light.”
The concept of Akari was to bring natural light into living spaces, and the corresponding Japanese character 明 (Akari, light) is made up of two kanji elements, 日 (hi, sun) and 月 (tsuki, moon). This lamp replicates the relationship between the sun and the moon, where the sun is the source of light, and the fragments, like the moon, receive the light.
