July 31 2018 | By Ann Ewbank for Atlas Obscura
Saving Mexico’s Heirloom Corn With Gorgeous Furniture
Above: Laposse over a table of Totomoxtle marquetry.
Designer Fernando Laposse is no stranger to playing with his food—his artistic endeavors have included many projects with sugar as his medium. But when London-based Laposse had a residency at the Centro de las Artes de San Agustin (CASA) in his home country of Mexico, it led him to create Totomoxtle: a project that means “corn husk” and that he hopes will preserve heritage corn varieties.
Fernando Laposse decided to use his skillset as a product designer to showcase the colorful husks of Mexico’s heirloom corn by turning them into veneer, a decorative covering for everything from tables to vases. The kernel of this idea came from CASA founder Francisco Toledo, who Laposse calls “probably the most famous living artist in Mexico nowadays.” Toledo, Laposse says, is famed for his activism that aims to preserve Mexico’s corn. So in 2015, Laposse decided to develop a way of creating a material from gorgeous corn husks, which he remembered from the markets of his childhood.
“The last guardian for the native seeds are the indigenous communities of Mexico,” Laposse says, adding that for many, the value of heirloom corn lies in tradition and gastronomy, instead of money.
Seeds are handplanted in Tonahuixtla for Totomoxtle.
A harvest of the corn intended for Totomoxtle.
Geometric tiles, made with colorful husks.
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