The well known lighting designer Ingo Maurer brings the phrase Porca Miseria to life with this intimate portrayal of an?Italian curse.?Porca Miseria! or 'Holy Crap', may be exactly what someone would say when dropping their favorite dish collection. Or worse yet there most precious china passed down from two generations.
Source: Ingo Maurer
This piece is part of a limited edition collection, in fact they only produce ten pieces a year. With each piece taking a total of four people working on just one fixture for almost five days.
But how do they do it? They purchase standard porcelain plates and smash them by dropping them or taking a hammer to it. This gives each fixture a random and original look from any other of the Porca Miserias. This is the most chaotic part of the construction, the rest is constructed with much more precision.
Source: Ingo Maurer
Inspired by a trip to Milan, Maurer yearned for a passionate piece to express light in a whole new way. During an interview with The Washington Post,?Maurer pronounced that,"I found too many designs there slick and design-conscious. "Porca Miseria" is partly a kind of revolt against that tendency. I'm also an admirer of slow-motion explosions, like in the film by Antonioni called "Zabriskie Point," where he blew up a castle in slow motion.?When I first showed it in Milan, I called the lamp "Zabriskie Point." But then the first few Italians came, and — since no one had seen this ever before — said, "Porca miseria!" which is a kind of a cuss: "What bad luck!" So I immediately changed the name to "Porca Miseria."
Source: Ingo Maurer
