Ritual remains

Name designer: Stina Henriksson

Bio of the designer:

Stina Henriksson is an industrial designer based in Malmö, Sweden, founder of sa:k design studio. She holds a MFA in Industrial Design from Lund University, and has a background in theatre as a mask- and wig maker. Her practice is interdisciplinary, artistic and concept-driven. By exploring form, materials, and processes her work spans from material experiments to furniture design and exhibition curation, challenging conventional ideas of function, aesthetics and value.

Title: Ritual remains

short description: 

Ritual Remains is an object made especially for the exhibition, an object that expands the idea of the ashtray, connecting two familiar rituals: lighting a cigarette and lighting a candle. Both connected to fire, moments of gathering, celebration, or contemplation. Both inevitably produce remnants and traces of its burning. What is consumed disappears, while the remains accumulate. The object is designed as a place that collect the candle remains. Made from hand-cast aluminium and recycled wax, a metal grid lets the remnants from the candles melt down and build up in the vessel, eventually creating a new candle. The process can be speeded up by placing taper candles in the upper wax part, even lit and placed like cigarettes, resting horizontally on the surface, resulting in an extremely rapid melting process. The form is an homage to Ultima, the classic Swedish ashtray designed by artists Beck and Jung in the 1970s. This object takes its brutalist language of materiality, repetition and function as a point of departure and ask what an ashtray might collect today. We light candles and cigarettes for pleasure, contemplation, atmosphere or social connection. Fire transforms both into something temporary. This object makes the act and ritual of burning visible through the remains.

materials used: Aluminium and recycled candle wax from restaurants

measurements: 20 x 20 x 10 

selling price: 700 euro including candle block and wooden wicks

Refill candle block 70 euro

One pieces available, and one extra block candle. More can be made to order! Estimated production time of 30 days, but depending on the foundry that cast it. 

Refill candles with an estimated production time of 1-2 weeks. 

Image credits for all visuals if applicable: 

Portrait photo David Möller @david_moller_photography.Process-, studio- and product photos all by the artist

Some additional questions are sent by email!