Candles sit in that quiet space between utility and ritual. Long before electricity rewired human habits the flame was a companion, a guide, and often a symbol. Early versions crafted by Egyptians and Romans relied on simple ingenuity rolled papyrus dipped again and again into beeswax or tallow until it held its shape and stood upright as a source of light. For centuries the candle was a necessity woven into the rhythm of everyday life. When electricity arrived its purpose shifted yet the object itself remained a cultural constant carrying a trace memory of its origins.
That lingering sense of meaning is exactly what contemporary designers like Gustavo da Mata lean into. Working under his Brazilian studio Estúdio Capim he has developed “ÓST” a conceptual series that pushes the candle from mere ornament into sculptural language. The forms are bold geometric masses with fluted edges half circles stepped blocks and trapezoids carved into thick wax. They echo two distant worlds at once the tactile softness of an ancient ritual object and the crisp visual codes of mid century control panels. There is something slightly mystical in their silhouettes an accidental kinship with symbols like eyes stars or arcane diagrams.
The name adds another layer. In Portuguese óst translates to “host” which touches on the candle’s long association with hospitality but also gestures toward that older idea of the object as a vessel for spirit or presence. De Mata’s pieces feel intentionally temporary too. They are chunky and assertive yet destined to melt which heightens the tension between permanence and disappearance.
As collectible decor they sit comfortably in the present yet seem to reach backward toward the past suggesting that even in a world powered by LEDs and screens the simple ritual of a burning candle still has room for reinvention.
