Painterly Spectrum Resin Table Lamp by Taeg Nishimoto

Painterly Spectrum Resin is a table lamp by Taeg Nishimoto that brings colors and their associations into a space as an object.

It is made of epoxy resin cast on the surface of parchment paper on which different color strokes are applied beforehand using latex paint, evoking the image of distant sky, water or landscape. When it’s lit, the light source inside makes those associations visible in a transient yet abstract way. It is an exploration of using the spectrum of painted colors as texture.

First, the latex paint is applied to the surface of parchment paper, using simple straight strokes of paint. Colors for each piece were chosen to focus on a couple of similar or contrasting hues that evoke the colorful and abstracted images found in natural scenery. That painted surface of the parchment paper becomes the horizontal mold for the self-leveling epoxy resin to be poured in within the rectangular configuration. One short end of this mold is made to form a perpendicular straight edge, and at the other end the resin is allowed to form a random edge with its own viscosity interacting with the slight creases of painted surface of parchment paper.

At about three quarters of the way through the resin’s hardening process, the resin, still inside the mold and malleable, is placed on a 60 degree edged base to form a V shaped individual piece, and left there to complete the hardening process. When it’s completely hardened, the parchment paper is peeled off from the resin, transferring the paint pattern completely to the dried surface of the resin.

Three differently painted pieces are placed around the triangular base to form one lamp. The attachment mechanism for resin pieces to the base allows the resin pieces to be switched to other pieces of different colors, making each lamp’s color combinations unique and easily changeable.

During the day, the lamp appears as a colorful object in the corner of a space. When it’s lit in the dark, the light bulb set inside lights up the object visually evoking an arresting image of the presence of sun or moon, depending on the colors of adjacent resin pieces. The three sides of the lamp projects out different hues of colored light to the wall around it.