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A block of mycelium sprouting oyster mushrooms outside the front door is the first sign that Rodrigo García and Katharina Kaminski’s Parisian home is no ordinary pied-à-terre. Entering the open-plan workshop on the third floor of a 17th-century building in the Marais, sparsely furnished with a trestle table and birch plywood stools, one is greeted with a rush of warmth and a waft of aromatic fragrance. The eye is drawn to the artist’s bulbous clay sculptures Kaminski scattered around the room, some filled with wax and set on fire. García, the founder of Amen, a sustainable candle brand known for its mycelium packaging, laughs as I settle into the zen atmosphere of their live work studio. This apparently has nothing to do with the night’s setup. “When we do meditation, it’s like a real temple here,” she says.
For García, candlelight has a rudimentary meaning given that he grew up in Flores, a rural region of Uruguay where electricity was not widely available until the early 1990s. Romantic partners since they met on the beach in his native Uruguay In 2018, Garcia, 38, and Kaminski, 30, were inspired to collaborate while trying to dine outdoors by candlelight on a windy night in the countryside. Frustrated by having to repeatedly relight the candle, Kaminski began sculpting a protective container. The result was two light clay cake sculptures: hikari and Philo – in curvilinear shapes in which light, a smaller clay pot containing a candle, sits comfortably. The sculptures were presented in 2021 with Luminous Beingsan art installation at Design Miami and Paris Dover Street Perfume Market.
The couple’s second collaboration with Amen Light Sculptures is a series of clay compositions that resemble enormous hollowed seed pods. Filled with hand-poured wax, which is said to produce 1,200 hours of light, they exude a heady fragrance of sandalwood, vetiver and eucalyptus. First presented late last year as part of Kaminski’s first solo exhibition, Matrixin it Santa Ana Gallery In Paris, alongside larger forms in marble and bronze, the works explore Kaminski’s recent clarification of his intersex identity, after a blood test confirmed that he has XY chromosomes. He was born without a uterus or ovaries, and was eventually diagnosed with complete androgen insensitivity syndrome (although he does not identify with the word “syndrome,” which he considers reductionist), so the contemplative spectacle of him was a way to recover his fertility. “For many years I lived very stigmatized about my own body. Now I have a totally different attitude about it,” he says. “With clay I can express what I cannot express with words. Creativity, fertility, it’s not just about having a baby. You create a work of art, you create projects, you create relationships. You need to have strength in this power of creation.”
The sold-out exhibition, with works purchased by architect Joseph Dirand, has encouraged Kaminski (model Elle Macpherson and influential designer Willo Perron have also purchased his works). He uses rustic unglazed sand textures for the light sculptures, but has since been experimenting with metals such as bronze and aluminum, as well as creating larger scale commissions for private collectors.
Meanwhile, Garcia has been developing new scents in Grasse, France’s perfume capital, where all of her vegetable wax candles are made. This month, Amen is launching new designs: the Amber Light Sculpture in Beige Textured Glazed Clay and the Gingerbread Light Sculpture in White Satin Glazed Clay, while also launching a new batch of Amen Santalwood Light Sculpture in Beige and Brown .
Both dressed in head-to-toe black, the pair playfully interrupt each other as they discuss their shared desire to spark conversations. Garcia’s paraffin-free candles, housed in white Limoges porcelain jars and wrapped in biodegradable mycelium packaging, aim to challenge persistent lethargy about plastic-free supply chains. For Kaminski, dispelling the stigma around intersex identities: Some estimates suggest that up to 1.7 percent of the population is born with intersex traits, a general term for people who are born with anatomical or genetic characteristics that do not match the typically binary notions. of male or female bodies – is equally vital.
García brings an entrepreneurial enthusiasm to his collaborations; Kaminski an intuitive sensitivity. “We have very complementary energies. Rodrigo is always very excited about the future, while I bring us to the present moment. If you are always moving forward, then you are missing out on something, often moments of enjoyment. And if you’re just in the present, that’s great, but you might stay there. But those perspectives together are very powerful,” says Kaminski.
Collaboration has taught them to respect each other’s limits. They rarely go to parties and prefer to meditate at home and watch movies on their projector. They run along the Seine on weekends, invariably ending up at a museum and occasionally dining at Ojii, an elegant Japanese restaurant that displays one of Kaminski’s light sculptures. The priority is always to find calm, a word that comes up repeatedly during our two-hour conversation. “Katharina brings calm,” says García. “Everything she plays is like she walks into a room and brings harmony.” They look at each other and laugh. “Well, this is like couples therapy,” Kaminski says. García nods: “We can pay you with candles.”