Founded by one of the most famous sculptors of the 20th century, Isamu Noguchi, the Noguchi Museum is located in Queens, New York, and displays representative examples of his work. The "Akari Unfolded" exhibition features works by six modern designers brought together in homage to the Akari collection. Made from handmade washi paper and bamboo, Akari is one of Isamu Noguchi's most renowned works
Forms of light inspired by the works of Isamu Noguchi. White acrylic turns into sculpture
The Japanese designer Nendo starts from the exhibition "Akari Unfolded", which was held in New York at the Noguchi Museum, to reinterpret the works exhibited by six designers. The result are white acrylic light works that convey the idea of sculpted stone fragments
Many of Noguchi's sculptures were carved directly from stone, so he considered Akari more as luminescent sculptures than as lighting fixtures. Inspired by these facts, the Designer imagined what would happen if Akari was carved directly from a massive form of light
The first step in the creation process was to carefully carve the white acrylic boards manually, from opaque to translucent, until they became extremely thin and transparent. Then, the fragments were enveloped as if they were floating inside a transparent acrylic cube and by illuminating these pieces externally, the " fragments of light" were depicted
Akari's concept was to bring natural light into living spaces, and the corresponding Japanese character of 明(Akari, light) consists of two kanji elements, 日 (ciao, sun) and 月 (tsuki, moon). This lamp reproduces the relationship between the sun and the moon, the sun is the source of light and fragments of receiving light
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