100 Series* / Light-Sifters

Structure is the giver of light.
_ Louis I. Kahn

It is no secret that how deeply I am obsessed with light!

Light always stands for purity and clarity, and poetically it is the ultimate purifier itself. Yet the theme for this iteration was to distill the light itself.

For this short video only 100 variations (from 5,040 available possibilities) are tried out. Each iteration is made out of 7 individually cut-out planes from Washi — the renowned handmade paper — which are overlaid / shuffled in 100 different orders before the light source. Among many narratives, the outcome reminds one of X-rays. In that sense the question remains whether light is revealing the structure or structure is revealing the light! _ RZLBD

*
100 is an ongoing theme/project at Atelier RZLBD that explores serial works, taxonomy, typology, and iteration as a means to explore possibilities, to search for the best solution, if there is any; while remaining faithful to a set of rules, core beliefs, or a modus operandi if you will. Of course, this has been an old tradition among many artists and architects to investigate the creative potential of defined rules to articulate a body of work with coherence.

_
Medium: Washi** paper cut-out
Size: 18cm x 25cm (7” x 10”)
2019, Toronto

**
Sekishu Banshi Tsuru washi is a Japanese kozo paper, handmede with 100% kozo fibre from Shimane Prefecture in Japan.

© Atelier RZLBD / Reza Aliabadi / 2021, Toronto, Canada