Japanese-American designer Isamu Noguchi created the Akari lamps, which are made using Japanese washi paper — it is one of the most notable designs by Noguchi. He started off as a sculptor and he created the light in 1951 inspired by the traditional method of Japan’s Gifu region using the washi paper. It appears to be an artful paper lantern that was remixed in a more modern angle.
Noted by Noguchi according to the Life of Isamu Noguchi book by Masayo Duus, he shares, “The name Akari, which I coined, means in Japanese ‘light as illumination. It also suggests lightness as opposed to weight. The ideograph combines that of the sun and the moon. The quality is poetic, ephemeral, and tentative.”
Image Credit: Ollie Hammick, White Cube