Project Info
Title
It’s Healthy to piss out the fire
Size
80 cm x 80 cm x 90 cm
Material
Brass
Finish
Piss patina
About
The title is based on The Dutch Proverbs (1559), a painting by Pieter
Breughel the Elder. In the context of that painting, It’s Healthy to Piss Out
the Fire indicates that it is wise to avoid blind ambition. This approach of
using proverbs to inspire new designs was later used on a bigger scale to
develop The Allegory of the South. Apart from the metaphorical element, the
title obliquely reveals the essential ingredient and the process that produced
the beautiful green patina. Yes, you guessed right.
We experimented al lot with the technique of electrolyzing the material.
We tried oxidizing a lot of different metals to get to the point of the
chandelier. We found that a cast brass piece in combination with the technique
of electrolyzing gave the best result. Once we finished our material research
it was time to piss out the fire. We collected piss from everybody in our
studio until we had enough to oxidize the chandelier. Everybody drank a lot of
red wine before they donated their pee so the liquid had the right acidity to
it. We build a custom swimming pool around the object, poured some piss in, and
then the magic happened. The ‘it’s healthy to piss out the fire chandelier’
became one of the centrepieces of our Allegory of the South show that was held
during the annual Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven.