Even the smallest, most common of items can take your breath away. Often the hardest design challenge is to reimagine the ubiquitous items that we take for granted and give them magic. Both Hideaki Nishimura of Atelier Anti and Maarten Baptist work to catch your attention with simple, beautiful objects in the home.

Architect Hideaki Nishimura was born and educated in Japan but has lived and worked in Paris and Milan. Nishimura works across a range of mediums, including installation, architecture, sculpture and photography. This highlights his curiosity and desire to push boundaries. He is currently based back in Tokyo, where he started to pursue life as an artist in 2019.

 His aim with his art and architectural pieces is to capture the relationship between space, time and the forces in the universe. He also plays with the tension between the inside and the outside of an object.

Nishimura’s collection of work for the Cluster Craft’s online exhibition and store is titled Cradle. It was created exclusively for the Cluster platform and demonstrates Nishimura’s highly conceptual way of thinking about even the simplest of items.

“Cradle" is conceptualised not just as a decorative candle holder, but as an artistic instrument that focuses and reflects the fluctuation of physical phenomena such as light, shadow, liquid and flame,” he explains.

“Through this artwork, I attempt to enhance our perceptions of the aesthetics toward physical phenomena and laws lurking in the depth of our everyday lives.”

Minimal in shape and in material, the artworks are made of only of fused quartz and stainless steel with various finishes to give each piece its own character. A void in the fused quartz is filled with candle wax in various colours.  

These pieces are achieved in collaboration with highly skilled manufacturers and – unlike much of the work incorporated into Cluster’s collections – they are all machine made rather than made by hand.

“As an architect and contemporary artist, I do not place emphasis on handmade. The philosophy of the artist, the concept of the work and the message to the world are always the most important for me, even more than the output itself of the work,” he explains. 

Nishimura’s inspiration comes from unexpected places. Abstract visions, fragments of works, or drawings in a notebook.

Although the delivery appears minimalist, the artworks are conceived with great attention to geometry and physics, each piece created with perfect proportion. The monochromatic finishes aim to enhance rather than distract the viewer from lines of the piece itself.

 “In this artwork, the physical properties of the materials such as reflection, refraction, glossiness and transparency are more important than colour or finish.”

Baptist hopes that his work will challenge home cooks and baristas to be more experimental with how they present food and what combinations of flavours they can release.
“This tripod glasses are very nice for red wine. When you hold the tripod glass you can really spin the wine in the glass to give it more air.”
Where his glassware is provocative and inspiring, his furniture is more pragmatic. Aiming to solve the problems around the house.

Work by both Baptist and Nishimura is available on the Cluster online shop.