It was obvious from the start that Maayan Zilberman wasn’t going to grow up to be an accountant or a lawyer. Her creativity goes bone deep. As a child she would base her entire wardrobe on her annual Halloween costume. When she was eight, she was Lady Di for a year. More recently, as an adult, she dressed as spaghetti and meatballs, which translated to her wearing silky, fringed garments every day.
Photo by Liza Voloshin
“I’ve always had this enormous desire to discover, explore, see and touch,” she said. “I wasn’t necessarily good at making things when I was little, but it brought me so much joy—the most magical thing in the world is to create something recognizable. And, conversely, doing math homework, well, that never brought me joy.”
Nowadays you’ll find the Israel-born, Vancouver-raised art-school grad cooking up fantastical, delicious creations in the New York studio/showroom of her candy brand, Sweet Saba. It specializes in “grown-up” candy—refined, never cute, in adult flavours like rosé wine. She founded the company in 2015 but, in some ways, it’s been a lifelong project.
As a kid growing up Zilberman would head to the kitchen more often than the craft box when she wanted to make art; the first thing she remembers creating is a salt-dough candelabra, which her grandmother still has. Her earliest kitchen collaborator was her saba (Hebrew for grandfather).
“My proudest achievement is creating a company that I named after him,” she said. “After someone passes away you always think about how to keep the memories alive. Now, I always have the chance to tell people about him.”
These days, her collaborators include everyone from makeup brand NARS, to video-game developer Take-Two Interactive, her partner on an installation at Art Basel Miami 2016.
“Collaboration is really important to me—it allows me to do different projects and have a dialogue with creative people. It also makes me learn; I recently worked with a couture house, replicating its runway jewelry. I had to study how the designer constructed the pieces and it forced me to understand the structure and appreciate the skill in how they work. That inspired me to create pieces for a gallery show I’m doing of my own art.”
In fact, Zilberman often teams up with fashion brands like Irene Neuwirth Jewelry, Jimmy Choo and Delpozo—not surprising given her background as co-founder of celebrity-coveted lingerie brand The Lake & Stars. While the move from fashion to candy might seem surprising, she considers her path to be quite linear, saying, “There’s still the same idea of creating things and having a seat at the table to share them with the community.”
Many artists are interested in the idea of legacy—leaving a body of work behind them—but it’s the very ephemerality of working with food that attracts Zilberman.
“One of the original ideas behind Sweet Saba was thinking about everyday objects and replicating them—we eat things, they become part of us, then they’re a memory,” she said. “They bring joy but don’t collect dust.” Then there’s the fact that candy is fun. “When you work with non-traditional materials, there is always a sense of humour,” she explained. “In art school I wasn’t interested in traditional painting because it’s just so serious.”
Right now Zilberman is working on a book. She’s also considering a return to lingerie design.
“The industry has changed so much. It’s more fun; women shop differently, they don’t go to department stores, and they’re looking for something different. They aren’t trying to push up their boobs; they’re content with what they have,” she said. —Aileen Lalor
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