THE COSSACK, THE QUEEN & CANDY N.2 . 2019

With Queen, Cossack, and Candy, the ToTem family expanded. They grew taller, bolder, and more theatrical.

Commissioned for Local Milan during Milan Design Week 2019, these pieces marked a new chapter after the Prima Familia. They were conceived in response to the grandeur of the exhibition venue, a historic Milanese palazzo, and their scale was pushed to inhabit the space with presence and playfulness.

Inspired by Oskar Schlemmer’s Triadic Ballet, I continued to explore the expressive potential of form, silhouette, and material. I remained connected to the wool produced by Burel Factory in Portugal, a fabric steeped in heritage and crafted by artisans in the mountainous villages where I grew up. Its vibrant colours and carefully sewn pleats bring the pieces to life with texture and joy.

The Queen rises to 2.55 metres, Cossack to 2.1 metres, and Candy sits at just 460mm. Their exaggerated proportions — stretched collars, elongated heads, compact bodies — evoke giant anthropomorphic toys or dreamlike characters from Alice in Wonderland. In scale and posture, Queen and Cossack began to feel like the the elders of the group, towering over the rest of the ToTems with a kind of quiet authority.

While playful in form, these sculptures remain emotionally open and deeply sensory. They invite people to touch, rest, and connect, continuing the ToTems' journey through material storytelling and tactile presence.