Milan-Based Designer Turns Pasta Shapes into Functional Sculpture

Artist and Industrial designer Chris Fusaro brings to attention the sculptural qualities of pasta with the Pasta Persa series, where pasta shapes are reimagined in bronze and assembled into functional objects, bringing a new significance to pasta’s culinary origins.

Just when you thought that the design world in general and the Milan design scene in particular had reached its zenith with no new contributions possible, Chris Fusaro transforms the most commonly available sustenance, pasta, focusing on its shape that provides strength to the structure created.

“This transformation emphasises the geometric and structural qualities of pasta, allowing it to serve diverse practical applications. Rigatoni’s tubular form provides structure and strength when used to build a chair, while smaller shapes like coquilettes or farfalline can create delicate, mesh-like textures ideal for lighting applications. This innovative technique showcases the versatility of pasta shapes in meeting both functional and aesthetic demands when reinterpreted in metal,” says Fusaro, the Milan-based industrial and sculptural designer.

Fusaro specialises in furniture and product design, and works with a variety of materials and processes, demonstrating an appreciation for both mass production and craft. His designs emphasise a distinct focus on the formal elements, their construction, highlighting their structure, materiality, and fabrication.

Prior to establishing his own studio, Fusaro gained experience working with artists such as Jon Rafman, and design pioneer Gaetano Pesce.

Fusaro’s first solo show, coinciding with Paris Design Week 2024 and Maison et Objet, was where he showcased the Pasta Persa series, with the new functional sculptures. Crafted using the ‘cera persa’ technique, meaning ‘lost-wax’ in Italian, Fusaro’s unique process uses a combination of jewellery and industrial foundry techniques to create one-of-a-kind, functional sculpture for the home. Each artwork, handmade in Milan, is finished in a variety of ways from natural patina to nickel and silver plating, for enhanced functionality and diverse aesthetic appeal.

Having previously invented the Pasta Persa technique for crafting kitchenware, Fusaro now expands its application to other areas of the home with a new collection that includes lighting, seating, and a variety of floor and table objects.

The Pasta Persa series was showcased at Sentimental fx, a gallery run by François-Xavier Courrèges, a specialist in collectible design, and located at the Paul Bert Market. Fusaro’s collaboration with Courrèges played a crucial role in bringing the Pasta Persa series to a wider audience.

La Cuisine, the project space of Galerie Hussenot, played host to the show and featured a large skylight, allowing natural light to illuminate the artworks on display. This unique space created an interplay between the domestic and a more traditional white cube gallery setting, an ideal place to showcase Fusaro’s sculptural design objects. Some pieces were displayed on plinths with others directly on the floor to reflect the dual nature of the objects as both practical and sculptural, transitioning them from the kitchen into other domestic spaces.

We chat with Fusaro to know more about this collectable design and the innovative use of material.

SCALE: How did your interest in pasta as a design element begin? 

Chris Fusaro: The idea originally came from wanting to create a pasta strainer out of pasta. I wanted to make an object that was self-referencing in a fun way, exploring ways of making an everyday object from smaller elements.

I started making strainers and bowls using real pasta, glueing them over things in my kitchen to copy the shape. Once the glue dried, I could remove the pasta structure, resulting in an object like a bowl or a strainer that mimicked the original but made entirely of pasta. Initially, I thought it would be easy to cast these pieces in metal through a foundry, which was not the case. The challenge became figuring out how I could create metal objects that retained the appearance of real pasta. I wanted to preserve the playful and naive constructions of using pasta, while creating a durable object that could be actually be used.

SCALE: Can you explain your unique technique, Pasta Persa?

Chris Fusaro: The process begins by creating a silicone mould from a single piece of dry pasta, which can be almost any shape. This mould is used to produce multiple wax copies of the pasta. These wax copies are then carefully melted together and assembled one by one into the shape of the desired object, whether it’s a bowl or a chair.

The wax assembly is taken to a foundry, where it undergoes the lost wax casting process, known as “cera persa” in Italian.  First, the wax assembly is submerged in plaster. Once the plaster hardens, the wax is melted out, leaving an empty cavity. Molten bronze is then poured into the mould cavity, filling the space left by the wax pasta object. Several techniques are borrowed from the jewellery industry, mainly vacuum casting, where the mould is filled under vacuum, drawing molten metal throughout the entire mould, capturing all the fine details of the pasta.

SCALE: Can you tell us about your artistic/design journey prior to exploring pasta as a medium?

Chris Fusaro: I originally studied industrial design at trade school and this education was very technical. We learned about different materials and manufacturing processes, like designing parts for plastic injection moulding and sheet metal production. This had a positive impact on my approach to design. It also helped me realise what I really wanted to be making. Later during my undergraduate studies in sculpture, I took the opportunity to design furniture.

That’s when I designed the EC1, a modular chair made of fiberglass and resin, that can be grouped together to form a larger lounging surface. I like using furniture as the arena to explore ideas about form, materiality, and fabrication. I like to experiment with different materials and processes, whether it’s artisanal techniques like the glass blowing used for my Love Lamp, or more industrial methods like laser tube cutting, which we used to make the Enzo table.

SCALE: Will you move on to new materials and mediums to express your design? How do you arrive at the product?

Chris Fusaro: Form, material, and process are all interconnected and shaped by the function of the object. I try to find new, balanced combinations between these elements. Exploring with different materials and processes helps me learn about their unique qualities, and furniture design provides the context for this exploration.

I like figuring out how to work with a new material, how to emphasise something unique and interesting about it. Sometimes, industrial techniques can reveal its advantages, other times it’s an artisanal process that will highlight its potential.

SCALE: Design has reached a point where it’s often used to spark interest, rather than serve a specific function. Thoughts?

Chris Fusaro: I think design is continuously evolving and growing into its own distinct thing. It’s come a long way from just being a response to a need or function, although it still includes that. I think design exists now as a more fluid concept, with flexible parameters that somehow separate it from art. When something new is created in this context, what defines the context also grows and changes.

SCALE: Who are the design personalities that inspire you, and what valuable lessons have you learned from them?

Chris Fusaro: As you can guess I’m very into bronze casting at the moment. I admire the work of Diego Giacometti and Les Lalanne, particularly their approach to functional art—integrating bronze sculpture into everyday objects that are useful and expressive. Their mastery at integrating functional elements through mediums and processes that are rooted in fine art is something I find very inspiring.