A parallel body of work · 2019 —
The sculptural practice runs quietly alongside the paintings. Each object is constructed, by hand and without adhesive, from dried durum-wheat elements — elbow, rigatoni, penne, farfalle — selected individually and threaded, pressed, or laid according to the same disciplines that govern the canvases. The studio does not refer to the medium as pasta. The studio refers to it as the material.
Note on the material
Durum wheat is the oldest wearable structure known to the studio. It holds pigment without argument, accepts gilt without vanity, and will, given the correct humidity, outlast the collector who commissions it.
All objects are one of one. There are no editions. Cuffs and collars are made to the specific circumference of a single wrist or neck, measured privately by the studio.
Selected
On the early works
Between 2019 and 2023 the studio produced a small group of objects that retain the directness of their origin. Red yarn, paper plates, pipe cleaners, and construction paper were used without revision. The studio considers them finished.
Dried elbow macaroni and red yarn, no adhesive.
42 cm at rest
Seven elements threaded at irregular intervals, two of them inverted, one partially crushed. The knot was tied in a single attempt and has not been retied.
The earliest object retained by the studio. All prior necklaces were lost to humidity or dismissed by the artist.
Paper plate, dried elbow macaroni, two plastic eyes, unsized glue.
Ø 23 cm
The mouth laid in five elements, left to right, with the second element lifted and replaced. The eyes applied after the mouth, against the studio's later rule that eyes must precede the face.
The only self-portrait in the sculptural register. The plate is the original plate; it has not been replaced.
Dried elbow macaroni and green pipe cleaner.
14 cm at rest, with one detached element
Nine elements threaded in under four minutes. The tenth element, rejected during assembly, remains in the register as a separate object.
The detached element is not a flaw. It is included as a study in refusal.
Red and pink construction paper, dried elbow macaroni, glitter glue, one child's hand (not the artist's).
28 × 30 cm
The border begun at the left ventricle and abandoned before completion. The glitter glue was applied from the same tube used in Mask (Paper Plate).
Reserved for a foundation in Los Angeles. The hand visible in the documentation is not the artist's; the studio declines to name it.
Cardboard box, dried elbow macaroni, tempera in four colors, unsized glue.
18 × 18 × 24 cm
The box was filled to capacity and then beyond it. The elements that fell were left where they landed. The painted marks were applied after the filling, in the order green, red, blue, orange.
Acquired by a museum in the American Midwest. The overflow is considered part of the work and is not to be swept away.
On the material
After 2023 the objects began to follow the same rules as the canvases: no adhesive, measured circumference, pigment in fixed gradients, and the gilt applied by the artist alone. The material never changed. Only the discipline around it did.
Rigatoni, penne, farfalle, and macaroni on unprimed linen. Cold-pressed pigment.
Ø 210 cm
Four thousand two hundred and sixteen individual elements, arranged from the center outward without correction.
Acquired by a private European foundation. Not to be exhibited before 2029.
Dried elbow macaroni, gesso, 23-karat gold leaf, waxed linen cord.
42 × 38 × 6 cm
Each element hand-threaded by the artist. Assembly time: forty-one hours. No adhesive is used at any point.
Worn once, ceremonially, before entering the register.
Dried macaroni, pigment, waxed cord.
8 × 7 × 5 cm
Made from a single length of cord, in one sitting. Reserved for a private collection, Milan.
Dried elbow macaroni, chalk gesso, 23-karat gold leaf, black velvet plinth.
18 × 34 × 22 cm
Six hundred and eleven elements, hand-threaded on waxed cotton and stiffened with three passes of chalk gesso. The gilt was applied by the artist, in a single sitting, in the presence of one witness.
Modelled after a diadem the artist made, aged five, for his younger sister. She has declined to comment on the record.
Dried macaroni, four pigments, waxed silk cord.
5.4 × 5.4 × 2 cm
Eleven elements, alternated in four pigments — bone, coral, cadmium, pale gold — strung on a single length of waxed silk. Executed in one sitting of forty-two minutes.
Made to the exact circumference of the wrist of a seven-year-old known to the studio. Never to be resized.
Farfalle on raw linen, seven pigments, mounted on shaped stretcher.
Ø 240 cm
Six thousand two hundred and forty elements, laid from the center outward. The chromatic gradient was arrived at without preparatory study and cannot be repeated.
Acquired by a North American museum. Extended loan agreement in force until 2032.
One length of dried rigatoni, lapis pigment, 23-karat gold leaf on both rims.
3.2 × 3.2 × 2.4 cm
A single tube. Selected from a batch of four hundred and eighty for concentricity, then pigmented in one immersion. The rims were gilt without measurement.
One of one. Sized privately to the wearer.
Penne, obsidian pigment, 23-karat gold leaf, waxed linen.
44 × 40 × 5 cm
Thirty-one elements, each blackened in one immersion and dried on a slab of travertine over four days. A single fingerprint of gilt is laid on each element, off-axis, without repetition.
The gilt fingerprint is the artist's own, made with the right index finger only. The collar is not to be worn in daylight.
Dried ditalini and a single gilt rigatoni, waxed black linen.
62 cm at rest
Thirty-nine tubular elements, hand-selected for length within a tolerance of one millimeter, strung in a single unbroken loop. The pendant element is one rigatoni, entirely gilt.
Not a liturgical object. Not to be described as one.
On commission
Collars, cuffs, and rings are made privately, once a year, for a small number of individuals known to the studio.
Request an introduction →