Rilievo

Since my first year at university, I have been reading art history. From the stone walls of Egyptian temples to the friezes of Greek ones, the makers of relief worked as a painter, sculptor or composer would, harmonizing form, emptiness and rhythm with the aim of beauty. As with art, the work needs to be perceived and interpreted by the body if it is going to move us.

The modern addiction to sight blinds us to one of the most powerful forces in art: the void. In 1930s London, white reliefs set out a quiet order of shapes for people to look at and breathe, while Europe grew darker between two world wars. The end of the war is known in Germany as Stunde Null, zero hour. Twelve years later, two young German painters chose zero as the name of their group.

One of them later wrote that their zero was not a negation but "a zone of silence and of pure possibilities for a new beginning."

The empty realms between visible matter vibrate with possibility. Through them, light, air, sound and time flow uninterrupted. The space breathes. White is a new page, not a blank one.

While we can't see voids, we can read their edges to map landscapes of tension or harmony. Rilievo's forms need intervals to define them, and the composition of negative spaces between them affects how they interrelate. These vignettes of nothingness can speak volumes: a cluster of forms with little space between them signifies abundance and intimacy, whereas a large, sparse living room can feel unwelcoming and alienating unless its voids are intentionally defined.

That is why I designed Rilievo, a wall relief, for our collection.

Manuela, architect and artist at The Soft Minimal

Each piece is made by hand, over 5 to 7 days of work.

• Solid raised forms, 1 to 2 cm deep, joined by carved curving lines
• True shadow under the raised edges, moving as the daylight moves
• Fine sand over blocks and ground alike
• Two colorways, one composition: Terra, plum brown, camel, terracotta and sand yellow over cream; Chalk, one ivory white, shown by shadow alone
• Seven vertical sizes: 50 x 70 cm (19.7 x 27.6 in), 60 x 80 cm (23.6 x 31.5 in), 70 x 100 cm (27.6 x 39.4 in), 80 x 120 cm (31.5 x 47.2 in), 90 x 130 cm (35.4 x 51.2 in), 100 x 150 cm (39.4 x 59.1 in) and 120 x 180 cm (47.2 x 70.9 in)
• Slim floating frame in black or gold; arrives already framed
• Care: a soft, dry cloth