Art Over Design: Prospero Rasuli

To create functional objects for people in their most intimate spaces requires a very visceral and expressive touch. From Prospero Rasuli’s earliest years of creating for the bathroom

“it was never about design or an object, it was always about art”. Perhaps the biggest turning point in Rasuli’s practice was when he met the inimitable Alessandro Mendini, with whom he began designing objects “which were sculptural but more of practical use”. In order to design for the bathroom – and the likes of Valdama with whom Rasuli has a close and long-lasting relationship, the blending of disciplinary boundaries has been the key to their shared success. Rasuli’s fine orchestrations of colour, form and material become “symbolic” forms of communication. A sense of “harmony and softness” for example, “communicate that there is more to an object than just being functional”. Because while the bathroom might operate as a fitfor-purpose space, it’s also an area of great influence in our lives. Valdama is available in Australia through Parisi.