Lamp with Aluminium, sapele and calico by Freddy Tuppen

A  lamp by London-based artist and designer Freddy Tuppen, part of the body of lighting he developed this year across floor, wall and pendant formats, following his lights in Between the Fields at Etage Projects, Copenhagen.

The lamp is built like a small piece of architecture. Two rows of square aluminium rods stand on the base at uneven heights, like a picket fence that was never trimmed. Between them, short bars of sapele run horizontally and carry three tiers of calico, laid in a staggered pattern so that each panel overlaps the gap below it. The central panels step forward, giving the lamp a shallow relief that changes as you move around it.

Nothing is concealed. The calico is folded around the frame rather than stretched over it, each sheet fixed with a pair of round-head screws that sit in plain view. The bulb never shows as a point. It reads as a warm, even glow through layers of unbleached cloth, and in daylight the panels turn the lamp into a soft screen that filters whatever is behind it.

Tuppen sets himself limits and then leaves room for the unplanned. Aluminium, wood and cloth, three humble materials, joined with hardware anyone could buy. The result is uncomplicated in form and rich in detail, and it carries the physical experience of its own making.