For a while now I’ve been looking for beautiful, minimal art prints to fill my bare walls and I think I might have found just the right thing. This new ‘Sabi Leaves’ series by Copenhagen-based practice Norm Architects for Paper Collective focuses in on the delicate detail of gently decaying leaves.
Inspired by the beauty that can be found in nature’s little imperfections, the four prints highlight the leaf’s complex structure and it’s network of veined lines in minute detail. Rendered in a soft grey colour, the fragile leaves give the prints a sense of calm and tranquility.
If it looks a little like zooming down a microscope, that’s because they were shot with the impressive, new XF 100 Phase One Camera, using a glass sheets to highlight the incredible amount of detail. Although they were captured on a solid surface, they suggest movement and grace, a moment captured in time before the leaf crumples and disintegrates.
Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen, partner at Norm Architects, explains the thoughts behind the prints series by rewording a paragraph from the book Wabi Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets and Philosophers by Leonard Karen:
‘The Sabi Leaves are expressions of time frozen. They are visibly vulnerable to the effects of weathering. They have recorded the sun, wind, rain, heat and cold in a language of discoloring, rust, tarnish, stain, warping, shrinking, shriveling and cracking. Their nicks, chips, bruises, scars, dents, peeling and other forms of attrition are a testament to their history. Though the leaves may be on the point of demateriali-zation – extremely faint and fragile – they still possess an undiminished poise and strength of character.’
The Sabi Leave series are available now from Paper Collective, see more here.
All images courtesy Norm Architects
