Brian Rochefort’s ceramics carry the evidence of every stage that went into them. The U.S.-based sculptor works in successive rounds, adding clay and returning each piece to the kiln again and again until glaze and glass have gathered across the surface, pooling in some places and splitting into crystalline textures in others. What emerges often recalls coral or cratered, eroded ground, forms he links to travels that have taken him from the Galápagos to East Africa.

That attention to process is what made him a fit for Canali. For “Under the Surface,” the Italian house’s new international art project, Rochefort has created original works that echo the way a Canali jacket comes together, through hundreds of small tailoring steps that each demand care long before the garment takes the shape a customer eventually tries on. His pieces for the project also lean into the earthy tones that have long run through Canali’s collections.

Courtesy of Canali

The idea grows out of work the company has been doing on its own production. In recent years Canali has put its manufacturing through a detailed, data-driven review aligned with EU regulations, aiming to pin down the practices that best protect its Made in Italy standards. The wellbeing of its workforce and the environmental cost of production have come under the same scrutiny. Keeping close oversight of how its garments are made and what goes into them, the company says, is what allows it to hold on to expertise passed down over generations.

Alongside Rochefort in New York, Piccoli, an art critic and professor, has brought in Lihuai Qian in Beijing and Diego Perrone in Milan. The artist duo Thukral & Tagra complete the lineup in Mumbai. Each comes to the theme with a very different sense of how materials carry meaning, so the idea takes on a new reading in every city. The campaign imagery comes from Italian artist and filmmaker Yuri Ancarani, who turned his camera on the in-between stages that vanish once a piece is complete.

Courtesy of Canali

New Yorkers get their first look on the evening of November 4, when Rochefort will be in town to unveil the sculptures in person.