NUT, A SPHERE IN THE ELLIPSE. The latest lighting collection by Angela Ardisson.

Angela Ardisson presents Nut, her latest lighting collection, that includes pendant fixtures as well as floor, table and wall mounted models, a project inspired by the walnut, both in terms of lighting design and form. There is a content and a container, an ellipse that embraces a circumference. Feminine sinuousness and formal minimalism, since there is only a single material, brass, as well as a single shape.

It all started last fall. The interior designer Michaela Curetti asked Angela Ardisson to create a lamp for a house in the mountains with great external views. For these clients she made a sculpture in metal fabric that, because of its volume, was able to shed sufficient light over the large dining room table while at the same time, it did not create a shadow in the room. A compromise between volumes, materials and light source. For lighting she used LED spheres, which at last, at least over the last few years, have happily replaced incandescent bulbs (ed. tungsten bulbs have always represented the 'beating heart' of her sculptures, fascinating for their shape and their visible filaments...). Her intention was to find a transparent solution able to silhouette the bulb and impede the bright glow that would bother your eyes. Nut is the wrapper that envelops the light and protects our gaze from its reflection.

On display, for the Milan Design Week, there are also some maxi light sculptures in bronze and some pieces from the EARTHLANDS collection that was presented last year. The exhibition partner is Altai, which is to say Raffaele Carrieri. “I'm very happy to have him by my side with his exquisite carpets – says Angela Ardisson - Raffaele has highly refined taste and over the years has kept his passion for his work, for research and the innate pleasure of handing down ancient tales. Stories that bind the threads of the plot”.

The examples from the early '900s chosen for the ARTPLAYFACTORY display were produced by nomads – who lived on the vast highlands of eastern-central Anatolia – to meet their daily needs. Used as mats on the ground or as wall insulation inside their tents, they were woven with natural colors of goat wool. “The Turkic term Kara means black, like the wool that was used, and thanks to the impressive durability of the material the carpets were also used for drying apricots, which provided the only source of vitamins during the harsh winters. The presence of small sections of embroidery or different colored yarns are totemic protective signs” explains Carrieri. It was precisely this "usefulness" that, through the millennia, helped preserve intact the original characteristics of essential design and the refinement of this rudimentary yarn. Traits which are also found in the poetics of Angela Ardisson.

 

Angela Ardisson, biography

Angela Ardisson was born in Tuscany in 1966. She started on her creative path at the age of 20 and works as a graphic designer, art director and art designer. In 2000 she opened the Artplayfactory Design Studio where she continues her experimentation with different materials and techniques, incorporating craft and skills learned over time; first learned as an autodidact, this knowledge then became indispensable to the personal working concept that distinguish her works throughout the world. Among her creations are: Baxter (Lais lamp), Peck Italian Bar Milano (light installation), Alberto Guardiani (store and showroom lighting worldwide), Grevi (stores), Ingeo Nature Works Earth Month NY (project and art direction), Dyson (art direction), Henry Beguelin Milano (store and showroom), Swarovski (installation), Straf Hotel Milano (co-art direction), Maurizio Pecoraro (showroom), Miu Miu, Prada in Milano and Malo in NY (window installations creating).

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