MAX ZINSER’S SACRED RELICS REINTERPRET ANCIENT FORMS

Zinser’s collections — MONUMENT, animalistic furniture with petite feet grounding each piece, to the earth, and the recently launched STELAE — reflect a tension between formality and freedom, history and intuition. He is inspired by Mayan, Babylonian, and Egyptian design languages as well as French art deco. Pieces in both collections draw on mythical creatures and sacred relics to create something more than furniture: objects imbued with a spirit worth talking to. STELAE is the plural form of stele, which refers to a small engraved obelisk that serves as a kind of commemorative marker, holding sacred texts and memorializing deities, rulers, and heroines. In later periods, stelae were understood as graves, monuments to geopolitical events and markers of time. Zinser reinterprets these ancient forms, transforming them into cast-glass objects of domestic utility, like side tables, trays, or altars. He pinches the cast glass toward the top two ends, giving each STELAE “ears” — opening a direct line of communication between the homebody and the gods. “Reconnecting with my life force led to this collection,” Zinser reflects, “which is fundamentally about the communication we have with ourselves and our gods.” His stelae aren’t just for display — they’re about making a space feel grounded, yet open to a higher power.