Brooklyn-Based Yuko Nishikawa Dreams Up a Ceramic Chandelier Called You See A Sheep

Before establishing her eponymous art-and-object studio this year in Brooklyn, New York, Yuko Nishikawa dabbled in interiors for such Interior Design Hall of Fame members as Clodagh and Alexandra Champalimaud. Now the Japan-born 42-year-old is blurring disciplines with pieces like You See A Sheep, a chandelier she fittingly describes as a “dreamy, immersive environment,” just like its inspiration, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s 1943 novella The Little Prince, one of her favorite books.

The composition consists of 24 shells of ceramic mixed with paper fiber to reinforce and lighten the surfaces. The wet clay is hand-coiled into organic shapes. Then randomly dispersed apertures are carved, colored clay is applied, and it’s off to the kiln. Once electrified and suspended on 15-foot-high steel wires,  the luminous elements signify “dwellings,” Nishikawa explains. Hmm, could architecture be next?