studio makkink & bey: silver sugar spoon

‘silver sugar spoon’ exhibition by studio makkink & bey image courtesy studio makkink & bey

showcasing at the liechtentein museum in vienna as a part of this year’s vienna design week, the ‘silver sugar spoon‘ exhibition by rotterdam-based design practice studio makkink & bey is an installation composed of tableware and products largely influenced by the habsburg valuables found in the imperial silver collection. made in close collaboration with sugar bakery K.U.K. demel and silversmith company jarosinski & vaugoin, the studio looked into the history of sugar and silver, imperial conduct and pastry cooking during the designing process. each pieces were tested and sketched out before casting them in silver

the resulting exhibition includes a collection of six sugar spoons which have been transformed into silverware; a tablecloth illustrating the chronicles of sugar history by method of drawing and embroidering on the textile cloth; a 42 m2 carpet laying around the tablecloth, representing the production process of sugar in correlation to the 42 kilos of sugar consumed per person in austria every year (each kilo of sugar cubes requires one square meter in order to be produced). a large silver vase serves as the centerpiece, holding a flower arrangement made out of sugar. the form of the 50cm-high vase is drawn from the silhouette of a dessert spoon. a number of facts about the history of sugar and silver are laid out in icing around the exhibition.

detail of textile and tableware image courtesy studio makkink & bey

sugar history sugar was to the geopolitics of the 17th to the 19th centuries what oil has been to the 20th and 21st. it was one of the building blocks of colonial wealth and transformed our culture, diet, health, environment and economy. for centuries, the conspicuous consumption of sugar was a mark of wealth and social power; hence the extraordinary ‘sugar sculptures’ at royal courts. it enriched europe while denuding the african continent of its population and retarding its economic development. sugar is now so present and cheap that we cannot imagine life without it. the value of sugar shows a strong change with time.

plates and cutlery made of sugar image courtesy studio makkink & bey

sugar facts: -buddhist monks brought sugar crystallization methods to china. -having set up the first sugar mills, refineries, factories and plantations, arabs spread the cultivation of sugar across much of the old world, including western europe. -venice set up estates in sicily, cyprus and algarve to produce sugar for export to europe. -crusaders brought sugar home with them to europe after their campaigns in the holy land. -sugar surpassed grain as the most valuable commodity in european trade – it made up a fifth of all european imports.

‘silver sugar spoons’ image courtesy studio makkink & bey