Isamu Noguchi: A New Nature at White Cube Bermondsey

Ina

Mar 17, 2022

2 min read

Updated: Oct 6

Isamu Noguchi: A New Nature was a free exhibition at White Cube Bermondsey, from 4 February to 3 April 2022. The gallery conceived it with the Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, and the foundation's senior curator Dakin Hart was its curatorial voice. This page is a record of the show.

Large white paper lamps of different sizes hanging close together in a gallery with visitors behind them on a blue-green floor

Isamu Noguchi: A New Nature – What Was in the Show?

The show brought together three kinds of work: an installation first made for a New York office lobby, a cloud of Akari lamps and a modular play system. It also had 26 galvanised steel sculptures, which were editions made by Gemini G.E.L.

There was a terraced floor installation too, titled 9 x 9 x 9. In one corner a stepped grey platform held a black sculpture, with a lamp hanging above it.

A stepped grey platform in a white gallery corner with a small black sculpture on it and a glowing lamp above

What Was Ceiling and Waterfall?

Ceiling and Waterfall was made in 1956–57 for the lobby of 666 Fifth Avenue in New York. The ceiling is aluminium and steel, and the waterfall is a wall of vertical stainless steel panels.

A long wall of vertical grey metal panels with a rippled surface, with a visitor at the right edge

The ceiling is the other half of the work, and it covered the roof of one room.

A white gallery with a ceiling of angled metal panels and rows of lights, and two small figures standing far off on the floor

What Were the Akari Clouds?

Noguchi began the Akari paper lamps in 1951, after the mayor of Gifu asked him to modernise the town's lanterns. At White Cube they hung together like a cloud.

Many round white paper lamps of different sizes hanging in a cluster below a mesh ceiling

What Is Octetra?

Octetra is a modular play system that Noguchi developed in the 1960s. The pieces can be arranged in different ways, and the show displayed five arrangements.

Three red hexagonal modules with round holes, stacked in a pyramid in a white gallery, with visitors beyond

Where Else Could You See Noguchi in London?

The Barbican Art Gallery had shown a larger retrospective that closed on 23 January 2022, which I cover in Noguchi at the Barbican. The V&A's collection also includes Akari lamps.

A New Nature: Practical Notes

📍 Where: White Cube Bermondsey, 144–152 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3TQ.

📅 Open days: 4 February to 3 April 2022.

⏰ Opening: Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 6pm. Sunday, 12 noon to 6pm. Closed Monday.

🎫 Admission: Free.

🚇 Getting there: London Bridge, on the Jubilee and Northern lines.

🗺️ Nearby: Borough Market and my page on Jessica Rankin at White Cube Bermondsey.

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All photos were taken by Ina/WithinLondon, unless stated otherwise.