Monday, September 15, 2008

Inkuku Arn Chair by Ryan Frank

















This cool Furniture is a great masterpiece of art by South African-born Ryan Frank (now working and living in London), Inkuku is made from recycled aluminum and recyclable plastic bags. The concept reinterprets a chicken ornament—hence its applicability in this week’s posts (metaphorical yes, but still apropos). The other reason it’s a good fit is that Mr. Frank admits to “creating products…that explore the underbelly of the furniture design industry.” Anyone who gets inspired by the underbelly of anything gets my vote of confidence.



























Inkuku (Zulu for “chicken”) chair capitalizes on an aspect of contemporary urban culture to create a unique piece of furniture. Frank put a modern spin on a traditional African craft technique by choosing to use plastic shopping bags and recycled aluminum as the materials for his piece.

The result is a heavily textured, brightly colored chair that would probably offer plenty of cushion with so many layers of thin plastic and trapped pockets of air. Its also an interesting commentary on re-use and recycling - now perhaps we can put all those plastic shopping bags to better use!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Totally adore this -- reminds me of the cheap plastic leis we used to play with as kids... in a good way! I wonder, though, about the crinkle factor.