Partners Marcel Sigel and Alana Di Giacomo founded their Melbourne-based studio Zuii in 2004, the same year their designs for light fixtures took first and second place respectively at the Sydney Morning Herald Young Designer of the Year competition. The central requirement for the contest was that designers create the entry out of plastic supermarket bags.

Sigel and Di Giacomo, who aspire to create pieces “that are slightly obscure and enhance an environment…that draw you into the design and make you look at it more than twice,” were drawn to the plastic bag restriction, largely because the use of an item most people think of as trash expresses their belief in the hidden meanings and often surprising functionality of “useless” things. Highly influenced by surrealism, the two create objects of striking aestheticism, pieces that stand alone as art, yet also work as utilitarian design elements.

Winter chandelier. Designed by Marcel Sigel and Alana Di Giacomo of Zuii.

Di Giacomo constructed her Winter chandelier, the second-place winner, by using an electric drill to wind the bags so tightly they begin to form clumps of stringy and draping knots. The resulting fixture certainly makes an impression. It’s strange yet beautiful: it recalls a chandelier, yes, but it’s also reminiscent of the wildness of Medusa’s unkempt locks, or the rebelliousness of a shaggy-coated Komondor. As the sole fixture in an otherwise darkend room, it calls to mind a luminescent sea creature—a Jellyfish or squid, propelling itself upward out of the murky depths. These comparisons may seem odd, but they would probably please Sigel and Di Giacomo, who want their designs to make a lasting impression. The Winter chandelier may befuddle, but it will also intrigue and inspire. Homeowners and their guests will be drawn to it again and again, constantly wanting to experience it anew, to see it with fresh eyes, to be delighted by what images it conjures up next.