WASHERS & ALEX

Alex grew up north west of São Paulo in an area patched with sugar plantations and cachaça distilleries. The fish in the local river, the Mogi-Guaçu, give his city it’s name. Each December the fish head upstream to spawn, as they struggle against the current they emit a strange noise. ‘Pirassununga’ means place where the fish snores. This is where Alex began his collection, the city has good weather year round and it’s easy to imagine the sun catching a discarded washer on the ground. Alex would never look for washers, he simply found them on the street. He moved to London and was still attracting washers like a magnet. The collection grew, he threaded them to fill a metre long length of string. The washers have lost some of their lustre recently, instead Alex picks up pebbles spotted by his son Otto. Otto has amassed a sizeable collection on his daily walks to school with his dad.

01 Sep 2013