| |
The
sculptor Isamu Noguchi brought to modern design a sense of
Japanese aestheticism. To him, all that was required to
start a home was " ...a room, a tatami, and Akari."
We tend to agree… simplicity has never fit better with the
times. Akari, the word he used to name his lamps or ‘light
sculptures,’ means light as illumination, but there is also the
implication of the idea of weightlessness in the Japanese word.
Akari are eminently Zen in their simplicity and aesthetic beauty:
light bounces off pleats and creases, creating a subtle canvas of
luminous magic.
The
influence of Constantin Brancusi, with whom he studied in Paris,
is evident in that certain ‘rightness’ of form in their
shapes, the sinuous beauty of calculated curve. Noguchi is
high modern precisely because of this marvelous fusion of
material, shape, and light.
The
Japanese-American Noguchi made his first Akari lamp in 1951 after
a visit to Gifu, the traditional center of Japanese lamp
production where lanterns were produced for Japanese emperors and
ruling class as far back as the 16th and 17th centuries. His
own lamps, using the old methods of construction, were originally
inspired by the lanterns used by night fishers on the Nagara
River. Noguchi
essentially took a traditional Japanese craft and modernized it,
replacing candles with electric bulbs. The lamps are
handmade and constructed of washi paper (made from the
inner bark of the mulberry tree) over a frame made of bamboo
ribbing, and are supported by delicate metal legs. The frame
is created over molded wooden forms and the bamboo and paper are
both so pliant that Noguchi was not constrained in any manner as
to the form of the lanterns. The lamps can be flattened and
packed away easily and an Akari in its simplicity and
ease-of-transport is eminently American as well - perfect for that
rootless America of highways and gypsy wanderlust memorialized in
Jack Kerouac’s 1957 On The Road. But high modern
comes with a high price. If one can’t afford the real
thing, the spirit lingers on in Ikea clones and Target versions,
which though never quite capturing the subtlety and rigor of the
original designs offer up their own versions of a certain golden
light. Visit:
The
Noguchi Museum
Buy:
Akari
Lighting
Tags:
paris
|
|
|
