CNN
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Artist-cum-confectioner Maayan Zilberman has long used sugar and sugar-like alternatives as materials. Her latest series, a group of iridescent, crystalline towers made of sugar, are now on display at Los Angeles’ Furth Yashar & gallery.
“Is her work more or less interesting or relevant (because) it’s made out of sugar? We feel it isn’t. It’s equally interesting and in some ways more interesting,” Sean Yashar, one of the gallery’s founders, said of Zilberman’s work.
“The sugar is new, fresh and different. It’s something different to glass, different to resin; it’s a different material and it reacts differently when you look at it, and that alone was interesting to us.”
CNN spoke with the artist-confectioner – and, it’s worth noting, lingerie designer – about her work.
CNN: How did the art and candy worlds come together for you?
Maayan Zilberman: I have a background in fine art. I went to school for sculpture and made art all through my other two careers (candy-maker and lingerie designer) to this show. I think a lot of the techniques I learned in school and in my studio helped me learn how to make molds and candy, how to construct bras, etc.
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Talk us through the practicalities of working with edible materials. What are the pros and cons?
The biggest pro is that when you have food, people are interested. Working with materials that absorb humidity and get sticky is really challenging, but the trade off of telling people the objects are candy is really rewarding.
What do the sculptures taste like?
I work with a flavorist who develops all the flavors for me, based on feelings I want to evoke or mismatched pairings.
Courtesy Nathan Ceddia/Bompas & Parr
Flavor-based experiential design studio
Bompas & Parr are experts in the art of jelly-making. Their architectural jelly installations have included replicas of Buckingham Palace, St Paul's Cathedral and Harrods.
Courttesy Greta Illieva/Bompas & Parr
The studio continues to push the boundaries of contemporary food design: a recent installation involved visitors walking through clouds of
breathable booze.
Courtesy Henrik Blomqvist
The Shit Museum's new series of tableware, flowerpots, vases, tiles and tables may look like they're made from terracotta, but "merdacotta" is a more accurate description.
Courtesy Henrik Blomqvist
A mixture of recycled cow dung and clay, merdacotta is formed by extracting the methane and urea from manure, removing unwelcome odors. The methane is then burnt to produce electricity, minimizing waste.
Courtesy Elizabeth Salonen/Mottoform Studio
Salonen's designs combine hand-knit paper yarn with LEDs to make rounded pendant lamps. Her Loop lamps are an exploration of how traditional crafts -- in this case knitting -- can merge with technology in the creation of functional objects. Each lamp is knitted and crocheted by a local artisan, each with their own distinctive style, meaning no two lamps are the same.
Courtesy gt2P
For their Remolten stool series, Chilean design studio
gt2P (which stands for "great things to people") coated heat-resistant materials porcelain, stoneware and concrete in basaltic andesite -- a porous, lightweight rock found on active volcanic slopes across Chile.
Courtesy gt2P
There are 2,000 volcanoes in Chile, 500 of which are active. The stools are designed to celebrate the beauty of natural forms. By manipulating the temperature of the cooling lava, the designers have given each stool a unique texture, from rough and pimpled to smooth and dripping, as seen here.
COURTESY GALERIE KREO
German industrial designer
Konstantin Grcic uses a new composite material, minero, to create an experimental chair based on a 15th-century Italian painting. Grcic's Hieronymus series, presented at Design Miami by Galerie Kreo, is designed to emulate the spatial qualities of the furniture depicted in Antonello da Messina's 1475 painting "St Jerome." ("Hieronymus" is the Greek and Latin form of the name Jerome).
The Hieronymus Minero seat is molded from a composite of concrete and resin developed especially for this piece.
Courtesy Jaydan Moore
During Design Miami, Ornamentum will present a joint exhibition showcasing the work of American metalworker
Jaydan Moore (work seen here), and British silversmith
David Clarke.
Courtesy David Clarke
Both designers use reconfigurations of antique metal ware -- silver and pewter domestic objects such as spoons, sugar bowls and teapots -- to create new pieces, such as platters, sculptures or, in this case, candlesticks.
Adam Reich
Born in Minnesota in 1989, Fulbright Fellow Misha Kahn is known for his unconventional use of materials. Some of his latest works will be on view in Miami as part of New York-based gallery Friedman Benda's group show.
To make his "The Wild One China Cabinet" (seen here), the designer used woven grass, car parts, garbage and sea glass from Swaziland. Another of Kahn's designs, "The Slippery Feel of Inevitably," is a 12-foot hand-woven mohair tapestry of clay, paper dolls and computer rendering, depicting a kaleidoscopic landscape of Jell-O moulds.
Courtesy Marlene Houissoud
French-born designer
Marlene Huissoud's interest is in materials derived from insects, such as honeybees and Indian silkworms.
She sees insects as her partners in the design process, and explores how their natural waste can be harnessed in design. Her Bee Vessel vases, for instance, are made from honeybee bio resin.
Courtesy Anne Purkiss
As the son and grandson of flower-growers,
Marcin Rusak has long been fascinated by natural sources of decoration. Taking inspiration from the mechanisms and processes underpinning today's corporate flower industry, his Flora furniture collection features colorful blooms set in black resin -- a nod to the ephemeral nature of floral beauty.
Why do we define certain things as art and others as functional items?
I think it’s a matter of intention, and how we perceive objects in a hierarchy of things. I’m no expert, but I know how I differentiate these things in my own world.
In what ways do you think you are testing the boundaries of art and ephemera?
I’m asking people to invest in objects that are too big to put in your mouth, but made of the same materials you’d find at a candy shop.
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Oliver M. Furth and Sean Yashar, the founders of Furth Yashar &, have described their gallery as a space for beautiful objects that don’t need to be categorized. Do you think this is the future of exhibitions?
It’s something really nice about doing this show with them. They’ve never questioned whether or not my work is art. I don’t question it, so it makes for a smooth working relationship.
Not every artist is going to feel comfortable being grouped with other categories, but going to back what I said before, it’s a matter of intention. I made these pieces to exist in a gallery, while other work I’ve made is more of a party favor. I feel comfortable working both ways, and each brings me equal amounts of joy.
The photographs of the artworks will be the only permanent pieces left after the exhibition. What happens to the sculptures after the show?
It depends who purchases them, whether they decide to eat them or preserve them.
“Maayan Zilberman SUGE” is on at the Furth Yashar & gallery in Los Angeles until Aug.11, 2017.