Paper, bamboo and light
Akari is Isamu Noguchi’s series of paper lanterns, which he called light sculptures. The designs use washi paper and bamboo. Their history begins with his 1951 visit to Gifu, a Japanese town with an established lantern-making tradition.
Adapting a lantern tradition
Asked to modernize the lanterns, Noguchi developed electric versions in place of candle-lit ones and used wire to extend their sculptural possibilities. The lamps could collapse for flat shipping. Many variations followed, and examples entered museum collections as well as homes.
What to examine
Study an Akari both illuminated and unlit. The comparison helps distinguish its volume as an object from its role in a room’s lighting. Its collapsible construction offers a second question: how does a form change between making, transport and use? These are specific ways to examine the meeting of craft and sculpture without assuming that artistic recognition diminishes the lamp’s practical purpose.