Of synchronicities, and stumbling across original inspirations
I came across this illustration by Bridget Riley, back in 2014.
At that moment I was looking to explore the translucency of marble, and I wanted to realize that through patterns which were fluid, soft and lent themselves well to dimensionality. Jump to May 2023- while visiting the Hammer museum, which is my local haunt, I was properly introduced, for the very first time, to this extraordinary illustrator - who had been an inspiration for me for almost a decade - and I had absolutely no idea who she was.
Going back to the summer of 2014 - Issey Miyake reintroduced the “pleats please” spring summer collection and I was obsessed with the texture and and dimension which was achieved through a seemingly flat material - fabric. I wanted to create a series of work in marble which lent “lightness” and “fluidity” to my “cumbersome” medium of natural stone/marble.
We went through hundreds of prototypes!
Origami and paper folding became completely unnecessary but absolutely essential(to the process) at the same time.
The evolution of the “Puritsu”, which literally means a “pleat” in Japanese - from it being carved in Absolute Black Granite - which is one of the hardest known materials to realizing it in white marble and exploring the translucency.
I am still marveling at the evolution of this pattern, from a sketch made in 1960, to a imperfectly carved, highly straited version of the pattern in absolute black granite in 2014 - to the evolved, elegant interpretation in taj white marble in 2023.
I have to admit, I am beginning to truly appreciate the journey.
We went through hundreds of prototypes!
Origami and paper folding became completely unnecessary but absolutely essential(to the process) at the same time.
The evolution of the “Puritsu”, which literally means a “pleat” in Japanese - from it being carved in Absolute Black Granite - which is one of the hardest known materials to realizing it in white marble and exploring the translucency.
Experiments with scale and water.
I am still marveling at the evolution of this pattern, from a sketch made in 1960, to a imperfectly carved, highly straited version of the pattern in absolute black granite in 2014 - to the evolved, elegant interpretation in taj white marble in 2023.
I have to admit, I am beginning to truly appreciate the journey.