Giles Tettey Nartey, a British-Ghanaian designer, has transformed the traditional West African Lobi stool into a striking industrial product with his new creation, the Serwaa chair. Constructed from welded aluminium, this innovative piece reimagines the common wooden stool as a modern, industrial-style chair.
Inspired by iconic industrial designs such as the Barcelona Chair by Mies van der Rohe, Nartey’s Serwaa chair seeks to elevate the often-overlooked Lobi stool by presenting it in a contemporary context. “I take my practice as, in some ways, reframing something which is so common and revealing the qualities that I find really important,” Nartey told Dezeen. “How do you take this traditional Lobi stool, and actually frame it as if it’s – which I think it is – as significant as these Mies van der Rohe chairs [for example]?”
The Serwaa chair stands out with its low, sweeping metal structure and split seat, composed of two identical elements that slope backwards, directing the user’s gaze skyward. Crafted entirely from welded aluminium sheets, the chair features a refined composition marked by both curved and angular forms.
In a West African context, the Lobi stool is more than just furniture; it is believed to hold spirits of the deceased and is considered animistic. To enhance these animistic qualities, Nartey designed the Serwaa chair with six angular legs, a departure from the traditional two or three legs. “From a West African or African context, seeing an object with six legs isn’t uncommon,” he explained. “But a six-legged object within a Western context feels strange, just because of a design sensibility. So that strangeness was something I wanted to work with.”
The Serwaa chair is part of Nartey’s ongoing PhD research project, which explores domestic rituals in a West African context through a series of objects animated through performance. Nartey aims to restore the context and use of West African objects, which are often dislocated and presented in Western museums devoid of their original performative and mystic elements. “A large proportion of [these objects] came from the mystic sphere, but how they’re presented within a Western context removes this idea of animation from it,” he noted. “So my research talks about this idea of performance being something that animates these things.”
Through the Serwaa chair, Giles Tettey Nartey not only reinterprets a traditional piece of West African furniture but also challenges the Western perception of African art and design, bringing to light the significance and mysticism embedded in these cultural artifacts.
