At the end of 1983, Alessandro Mendini suggested that I designed a fruit bowl, which, together with a sculpture by Alessandro himself, would be the only objects within the space that Studio Alchymia was designing for the Triennale di Milano.

In the combination of ideal domestic spaces created by various Italian groups for this exhibition, the design of the Casa degli sposi was assigned to Alchymia. Mendini's sculpture symbolised, rather explicitly, the masculine element, while the one I designed was meant to allude to the feminine.

The time frame was extremely limited, and despite the incredible skill of the Milanese modeller Sachi (who created the prototype in wood from some sketches and a small clay model that arrived to him damaged), and Cleto Munari (who oversaw the casting), the object could certainly have been improved. This happened when I decided that the shape of the reptile underneath the tray would be suggested by deforming the top. Later, Munari produced several editions of this sculpture in different sizes.