{bookmarked for a long time, and i'm afraid i don't know the source - an exhibition in '07?}
isamu noguchi was a prolific artist, designer and landscape architect, but his best know works are the beautiful akari light sculptures, made of mulberry-bark paper and bamboo. he began designing them in 1951, after a visit to japan when the mayor of the city of gifu challenged noguchi to modernize the traditional candlelit paper lanterns. his solution embraced the traditional production techniques, using locally-sourced materials and essentially revived the declining lantern-making industry of that region. of the akari lamps, noguchi states: its very lightness questions materiality, and is consonant with our appreciation today of the less thingness of things, the less encumbered perceptions. the quality is poetic, ephemeral, and tentative. looking more fragile than they are akari seem to float, casting their light as in passing. they do not encumber our space as mass or as a possession... cup of the day by camilla engman main room by kevin acker reminiscential day. by mc_plutar
cafe - isamu noguchi garden museum by yoshie231