The ICON | Akari Lights

Isamu Noguchi’s organic-shaped ‘Noguchi’ coffee table features in many homes and his civic sculptures appear in forecourts, museums and galleries worldwide. The Japanese American artist, raised in California, brought his artistry for everything from furniture, sculpture, gardens, architecture and lighting design. Inspired by the work of sculptor Constantin Brancusi, who he worked with in Paris in the 1920s, Isamu Noguchi’s ‘signature’ is, as was Constantin Brancusi’s, light, ephemeral and poetic.

Although many of Isamu Noguchi’s designs can be termed ‘iconic’ with the distance of time, including his sculptural coffee table from 1945, it’s his Akari lights in the form of pendant, table and floor lamps that shaped his legacy. As mentioned by Isamu when describing his Akari, Japanese for the idea of weightlessness, they’re “like the beauty of falling leaves and the cherry blossom”.

Although these lights appear weightless, almost cloudlike, each one is carefully handmade using washi paper sourced from the inner bark of a mulberry tree. Bamboo ribbing stretched across a sculptural moulded wooden form directs its shape, and it’s then placed on a skeletal steel frame. Some prefer to place the Akari as a singular and sculptural form in the corner of a living room or in a bedroom; others group a variety of Akaris such as a series of pendant lights placed in a double-height void.

Architect Sam Marshall and his partner artist Liane Rossler have two Akari floor lamps in their home in Queens Park, Sydney. One, purchased over 10 years ago and referred to as the UF4-L8, takes pride of place in the couple’s living room. The other Akari, known as the UF3-Q, also a floor lamp, is positioned in the corner of their bedroom. “I was first introduced to these lights at interior designer George Freedman’s house (Marshall worked for Marsh Freedman between 1984 and 1988). George was brought up in New York so he had a close affinity to Isamu Noguchi’s work,” Sam says, who designed Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art.

Sam and Liane’s home, a 1930s Californian bungalow with a 1960s extension, enjoys abundant northern light. However, it’s in the evening, when the Arkari UF4-L8 is switched on, that there’s a wash of gentle light against the living room wall brimming with art. “It has this great diffused light, rather than a lot of other lights that literally can blind you,” Sam says, who also appreciates its handmade quality. “Because it’s all handmade (produced by Ozeki & Co. in Japan) there are these wonderful imperfections, not surprising given its washi paper,” he adds.