Nerocactus

Guido Drocco and Franco Mello designed Cactus for Gufram in 1972: a coat stand in the form of a desert plant, as tall as a person. It became one of the defining objects of Italian radical design. Nerocactus, from 2010, is the black version and a limited edition of 500 pieces. In black the outline sharpens, and the object reads more as sculpture than as plant.

Each Cactus is cast in soft polyurethane from the original mould, with four arms and 2,165 small nodes. It is painted by hand with Guflac®, Gufram's elastic lacquer, in up to fifteen layers, which keeps the skin flexible and hard-wearing. No two pieces are exactly alike.

Cactus has been exhibited at the Triennale in Milan, the National Art Museum of China in Beijing and the Barbican in London, and is part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Design Museum in New York. The 1:8 miniature is Guframini Nerocactus; in green the same form is Another Green Cactus.