Touch the Grasse – literally. When one thinks of the connection between art, design and nature, one wouldn’t immediately come to think of a luxury concept candle. But Amen Candles, a Paris-based luxury candle brand founded in 2020 is here to prove us wrong.
Handmade in Grasse, known as the world’s perfume capital, Amen Candles create high-end candles using natural vegetal oil wax, encased in carbon-negative mycelium packaging. The reality of our eco-conscious is ignited by the brand’s mission towards sustainability, honouring nature’s cycles of growth and decay à la wabi-sabi aesthetics. Amen’s blend of material, scent, and cause forces us to redefine luxury through a sustainable lens.
Tying in with the ongoing Picasso for Asia: A Conversation Exhibition at M+ museum, Amen Candles founder Rodrigo García Alvarez, and Diana Widmaier Picasso, granddaughter of Pablo Picasso, has partnered with Kapok stores across the city to bring its high-end line of scented candles inspired by the secret love letters and paintings of the late Pablo Picasso, with a commitment to environmental sustainability.
In the days of its infancy, the creative autonomy as a small, independent brand inspired Alvarez to start looking for protective packaging due to shipment damages of Amen candles in Limoge porcelain jars from his first store in New York. Says Alvarez, “I refused to the idea of using styrofoam that would take 500 years to decompose for a 50 hours burn candle, so while looking for biodegradable alternatives, I found mycelium.”
For the longest time, the low demand and high pricing of biodegradable packaging have dissuaded many big companies from using it. Still, Alvarez invested in mycelium packaging and his desire to share this “intelligent material that is mushrooms”. He launched an art installation titled ‘Mushroom Conversations’ at Dover Street Parfums Market Paris in 2020, furthering the ecological discourse of a plastic-free world. Alvarez notes, “We are a small brand, so that allows us to be proof of concept for others to follow.” In their mission of sustainability, the brand publishes suppliers on their website as a means for affordability and to be economically democratic for all brands.
In its positioning within the luxury candle market, Amen Candles fuses art and sustainability through its packaging made from carbon-negative mycelium derived from mushrooms and agricultural waste, in part of their advocacy towards a plastic-free environment. Picasso’s grandaughter, Diana Widmaier Picasso, recalls a love letter from her grandfather Pablo to her grandmother: “You are always on me, Marie-Thereze, mother of sparkling perfume pungent with star jasmines.” Inspired by Pablo Picasso’s classic paintings, Amen Candles has produced fragrances and scented candles based on Picasso’s works.
Says Alvarez, “If a blind person would feel the aroma, would it be an honest interpretation of the painting?” This element of the multi-sensory as a creative medium is central to the concept of the brand. Diana Picasso herself also shared the same sentiment, and believed in Alvarez’ vision where the future of art and product could also stand closer to the environment.“ I immediately responded to the beliefs behind Amen: to add soul to the scents and to cherish our Mother Earth,” says Diana Picasso.
The brand’s has numerous tie-ins and collaborations around the world, including a notable one with Alvarez’s partner, model and sculptor Katharina Kaminski, who curated her Light Sculpture Beings exhibit upon a life-changing discovery of her intersex genetics. Symbolically, the duo brought light to an underrepresented community, igniting an art movement through the fusion of sculpture, form, and light –fuelled by the flames of García’s candles.
“We live in a society where everyone listens, sees and hears only what they want to hear,” says Alvarez, who believes it’s necessary to share different points of views. “I believe in the power of art and design to achieve this.” Amen symbolises the role of art in shaping economic and environmental consciousness by inviting its consumers to the conversations of sustainability through its biodegradable packaging. Alvarez also voices hope of plastic redundancy in the future, stating that “in a couple generations maximum, plastic will only be at museums.”
When asked about the potential of a plastic-free future, Alvarez said “I think in the future generations talking about the use of plastics will be as crazy as talking about slavery for our current generation. Something unthinkable!”
He hopes plastic tax and subsidisation would make sustainable packaging affordable through increased competitiveness. “I believe in the power of design to shift paradigms… we attempt to use the forces of capitalism for good, and we do this with the power of design.”
But back to the candles. Alvarez believes burning a candle is to be present. The flame has been the centre of human connection, and the hearth is a symbol for passion and transformation.
The connection is furthered by García’s sentiment: “When you are gifting Amen you are sharing your values.” García’s project is a ritual igniting art and economy, in harmony with the mission of protecting our environment – our home.
The information in this article is accurate as of the date of publication.
