A glowing tube weaves its way through a grid of exposed metal, held together by parts that most designers would typically hide. There’s no attempt to mask the wiring or smooth out the connections. Instead, the piece invites you to see it fully with its structure, its system, and its light. In Yaazd Contractor’s work, illumination isn’t an afterthought but a natural outcome of how it’s built; he views the world through a lens of ‘raw precision.’ Having graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), he has a creative DNA, a hybrid of Mumbai’s resourceful, craft-based culture and the rugged, do-it-yourself industrial landscape of the American Midwest. His career is defined by The Back Studio, a design lab he co-founded with Italian artist Eugenio Rossi that treats the scrap heap like a gallery.
While most designers hide the bolts, wires, and brackets, Yaazd and his team at The Back Studio bring them into the spotlight. A rising star in the global design circuit, he has made his work a centrepiece at Milan Design Week (Alcova), New York Design Week (WantedDesign), and galleries across Chicago. He is recognised by major design authorities, such as Dezeen and Lampoon, for pioneering a regenerative aesthetic that uses recyclable glass and metal components assembled rather than fused, allowing for a lifetime of repair, intervention, and evolution.
Q1: You’ve made neon central to your practice. What made you recognise its potential as an artistic medium?
Yaazd: That’s a funny story! I was at the School of Art Institute studying art and technology, and one of my friends told me to check out the NEON summer course. What sold it to me was that it was nine to four, five days a week, for three weeks during the summer. It sounded like a perfect summer: earn credits, take a little class, and enjoy the summer as well.
I was offered a job as a TA in the NEON and Light Lab for the three years of my college career. I was in charge of putting the gas into the tubes, which is also called bombarding. In the end, you got this beautiful vessel with glowing gas, and you feel like you are bringing something to life. That specific process of bombarding enticed me into the craft. I could create a finished piece from nothing. It was an amazing experience; that entire process is what introduced me to neon as a medium.
Q2. Your work brings hardware components to the forefront rather than concealing them. What draws you to making the mechanics of construction visible?
My family – my parents, my sister, and my neighbour are all either interior designers or architects. I have been surrounded by this, getting to experience start to finish: foundation, bare bones, electricals, all the things that are hidden but make the building work.
I think they have a utilitarian beauty. I’m removing them from behind the walls and bringing them to the forefront, using them in ways they weren’t intended. The idea of standardisation, how things can fit and match even though something is for plumbing, but the other thing is for electricals, is what brings them to the front. They’re recognisable but not known to everyone. I want to show their usability in a different way.
Q3. You’ve worked across cities around the world. Does a city play a role in inspiring you for the pieces you create? How does something as fleeting as the city’s everyday chaos translate into a resolved piece in your studio?
Cities have a huge impact on our work. Light and space go hand in hand, and the space the work occupies has a significant impact as well.
There are certain things about just how cities work: sourcing material, the feasibility of what is available, and cost. But also inspiration, like how the industry is out here. A big example is scaffolding. In India or Hong Kong, we’ve got bamboo scaffolding, which is a very industrial material. In New York or Europe, you’ve got metal scaffolding, which has its own charm.
Seeing these temporary structures and how things are put together – even how trucks are held, with a rope zigzagged with hooks instead of being ratchet-strapped – there’s a different beauty to both. Seeing what we’re surrounded by is a big inspiration to our work.
Q4. You’ve spoken about the role of the viewer in perceiving your work. What do you hope people physically experience when they encounter your pieces?
The work has many lives. The temporary life in the gallery and the life it lives in the buyer’s home. A piece lives when it is both turned off and turned on. It’s beautiful when the lights are turned off, and the sun’s rays suddenly hit it. Getting to experience the work throughout the day with daylight and shadows, and then with neon as it engulfs the room with colour, is quite extraordinary. The gas in the tubes sometimes beads, giving a dotted line where you can see the running gas. It sometimes twirls and drifts with the current, and it feels beautiful because it is alive. If one gets to experience it to that degree, it’s the best.
Q5. You exhibit globally while working out of India. Do you find yourself adapting your work to different contexts, or do you consciously resist that shift?
I spend six months in Mumbai and six months in Turin, Italy. That’s where Eugenio lives and where we have other studios. Depending on where I create, I feel engulfed by that context. He (Eugenio) handles stuff himself and vice versa, but we are all quite global in India, too.
Q6. Through The Back Studio, your practice is rooted in collaboration. How does working with another mind shape or challenge your sense of authorship?
The sense of authorship is a deep question, but if someone says they’ve done everything from scratch themselves, they are lying. (As artists), We all take inspiration from something we’ve seen, read, or learned. To say it’s all your own is a tough thing for me. In a way, we’re all collaborating.
Working with Eugenio is amazing. We have an understanding, and finding that middle ground pushes us each time, keeping the excitement and joy of creating alive. Even in an individual sport, you still have to play with someone, and that’s what it’s about. We both have skills we excel at, some of which overlap, as well as our individual ways of thinking. Meeting at a point where different ideas can merge and get nurtured requires much more. In our partnership, we have each other’s backs. We don’t slacken because the other is right there.
Q7. What kinds of projects are drawing your interest right now, not in terms of scale but in terms of meaning and depth for you as an artist?
Recently, we’ve done a lot of art fairs. We did Neart with Matta Gallery and Artissima with NM3. These places are big, and you don’t have much control over the space.
We’ve been leaning more towards spaces that are trying to say something or do something different, like galleries and exhibitions, because we have more control over the space and can talk about what we want artistically. We have also been trying to move away from symmetry and trying to switch it up. Things that allow us to be freer and more ourselves are what we’re more inclined towards.
Behind the scenes, we’ve been working to expand and further professionalise our studio. We’re also looking into residencies and workshops where we collaborate, meet other makers and the community, and expand our work.
Q8. What role do you see yourself playing in shaping how India understands and perceives light in the context of architecture & design?
Just playing a role is an honour in itself. Designers, architects, artists, galleries, and auction houses have been doing an amazing job pushing architecture, design, and art to big leaps. Getting to be part of it is quite great.
I hope to continue doing what I’m doing for many years, creating things in light and pushing it. I recently realised that a lot of people like my work, which is a great feeling. I hope people give more care to aesthetics, craft, and good workmanship. I want to move away from the chalta hai attitude and push to make things better.
Light has a big effect on us. The quality, colour, and the way it can change your space, personality, and emotion. How you feel sitting in an office light all day as opposed to being under the warm light of a side lamp in your house… such things matter.
