Salù Iwadi Studio has unveiled a brand new facet desk named the “Zangbeto,” after the Beninese Zangbeto masquerade, a vigorous cultural efficiency ritual connecting the bodily and non secular realms. By way of its newest furnishings piece the studio goals to maintain West African traditions alive via the lens of recent creativity.
Calling the piece each a “narrative vessel” and a “practical artwork” piece, the form of the facet desk embodies the bodily varieties, vitality and symbolsim of the Zangbeto. The ritual originating from the Ogu tradition of Benin is led by spinning dancers that act as spriritual intermediaries, reflecting the cyclical nature of life of their daring actions.
Every bit is hand made in Lagos, Nigeria from Iroko Wooden in ebonized and pure wooden finishes. The conical form of the voluminous raffa costumes is mirrored within the silhouette of the desk and its wood blades are organized in a spiral to evoke the rotating motion of the dance. Between the wood fins, the designer notes that books will be inserted in order that the desk doubles as an ornamental shelf. On high of the desk, carved ridges radiate from the middle, giving the the desk high a satisfying tactile element and symbolizing the pathways of vitality that the Zangbeto dancers create in the course of the efficiency.
In a press release shared with Hypebeast, the studio says the piece “challenges viewers and customers to have interaction with cultural narratives in a tangible and interactive manner” and reveals the potential for design to be “a medium for storytelling, schooling, and cultural preservation.”
