Piera Bochner
Brooklyn based artist Piera creates handmade, unscented candles moulded from exotic fruits and vegetables poured in brightly coloured layers, each sculptural candle is uniquely coloured and highly detailed and makes for a truly unique centrepiece.
“I am an artist and designer based in Brooklyn, NY. I studied fine art at Oberlin College and in addition to my studio practice, I work as a printmaker in Soho, NY. My artistic practice spans a multitude of mediums and merges ideas of function, craft, seriality, and ritual. The creation of candles entered my practice through my obsession with the material of wax. I began by incorporating wax into my work as a surface or texture, but felt as though I was neglecting the breadth of its functionality, so I began to explore the possibilities of candles. My idea was to create a candle that evoked ritual and mystery — a candle with a form that surpassed the ubiquitous, steadfast shapes of pillars and tapers. I decided to explore new shapes by choosing pre-existing forms that intrigued me, like romanesco broccolis and bitter melons, and casting them to make the candle moulds. To make the candles I create different coloured waxes, which I individually melt and pour into these bizarre and haptic moulds, causing the layered effect. By hand-pouring every candle myself, I can control and investigate how wicks, wax, and flames travel down the new, unconventional paths I make for them. I find that all the different mixtures of wax colours combined with the melting power of the flame creates endless variations of the original form. The candle becomes both a functional object when its purpose is enacted, but also an ever-changing sculptural form when inert. What I find particularly engaging about creating a functional sculpture like my candles is that whoever decides to take one into their home and claim ownership over it has the ability to determine the fate of its form. By choosing to light the candle or leave it be, they control the final outcome of its decay and what the form will become”.
