Our New Off-Grid Credenza
We’re back from New York and have to say that it was one of the more thoughtful design weeks that we've attended in recent history. It helped that we were deeply connected to the work that we were showing and that everything we did show was done in community.
Our biggest debut was our new Off-Grid Credenza which was a response to a brief from our showroom, Colony, to dispel the notion that nothing is original by creating new work directly inspired by a design from the past.
After initially struggling with the brief, we eventually found inspiration in our own library in a book gifted to us by a family friend titled African Art in the Barnes Foundation. We were drawn to Door for an Inner Room made in the late 19th Century from wood and pigment by an unnamed Baule artist in what is now the Ivory Coast.
On its front side, the door features beautifully carved birds, crocodiles and a mask motif, but we were actually inspired by a carved check pattern on the door’s back side. It is a pattern that is perfectly imperfect and one that calls to be touched—a quality we often try to achieve in our own work. We knew right away that there was something to this pattern and also to the functional mechanics of the pivot hinge that could be explored in a new furniture piece.
Taking inspiration from something outside of our own culture is something that we hope we do in a reverential way. We also acknowledge that aspects of the inspiration that we are drawing from have their own histories beyond the Baule piece itself.
According to Wikipedia, “The incorporation of the check pattern in man-made objects has no definitive origin as the pattern has existed in assorted forms with multiple variations across continents and time periods.”
Human-made check patterns and weavings even pre-date the board game chess (or chaturanga in Sanskrit), which was developed in the late 6th or early 7th century in what is now India. Textile historians note that the check pattern is a by-product of the weaving process and is estimated to have originated as far back as Neolithic times in about 10000 BC.
Similarly, the earliest known pivot hinges were found in dry stone buildings from about 1600 BC in what is now Turkey where wood doors with integrated pivots were set into stone sockets quite like the Door for an Inner Room. Ancient pivot doors have also been found in what is now Iran and India.
Our Off-Grid Credenza attempts to hold all of this history while still serving as a functional piece of furniture for a contemporary interior. It will be available in FSC certified solid American ash with a choice of natural or black stain with other wood species possible.
We see the design as the start of a series where each piece is made-to-order and available in a range of custom sizes, from night stands to bar cabinets to bespoke credenzas.
If you are in New York, Off-Grid Credenza will be on view as part of The Knockoff Show now through June 30th at Colony. You can also find more information on the piece on our website. Please reach out if you have any questions.
- Chelsea & James