Milan 2014: Nao Tamura drew on experiences from the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami to create an installation of suspended mobiles, intended to evoke a sense of fragility and harmony with nature.
Japanese designer Nao Tamura told Dezeen that her sculptural work was influenced by the earthquake that struck Japan in 2011.
"We lost a lot of people and I thought life is so fragile, people are so fragile," said Tamura. "But also because of the tragedy, we learned to accept the nature and live in harmony with it."
"I wanted to make something very fragile and very delicate, but everything is keeping the balance," Tamura explained. "It creates this kind of sculptural piece and it's about light, the piece, the shadow, the air and yourself. When you interact with the piece it creates this motion and the whole thing changes."
Unique discs of acrylic resin with a coloured coating were fixed to a framework of thin rods representing the interconnected systems existing in nature.
Thin wires attached to the rods and held in tension by transparent plastic discs gave the piece structure and enabled the carefully balanced branches to pivot.
The movement of people in the space caused the delicate structures to move gently, causing a corresponding movement in the overlapping shadows cast on the ground.
"Through this piece, I wanted people to think about what we have now; the air, the sun and the nature and keeping good harmony with the nature and to realise that no matter how small your action is, you will have an effect that is larger than yourself," Tamura added.
Tamura developed the concept for the Interconnection installation in response to a brief from Lexus that asked designers to explore the theme Amazing in Motion.
Tamura's multidisciplinary studio has previously worked with designers and brands including Artek, Issey Miyake, Nike and Wonderglass on projects that frequently incorporate motifs and influences from nature.
Interconnection was presented by Lexus during Milan's design week alongside works developed around the same theme by Italian designer Fabio Novembre and MIT Media Lab's Tangible Media Group.