Nigerian traditional heritage has stayed alive in the brushstrokes and on the canvases of many a fine art master. Originally placed on the body and mud walls, the fluid marks of Igbo Uli motifs, for example, were famously continued through the drawn studies of Uche Okeke. His student and renowned artist, Tayo Adenaike, kept it breathing further, reimagining it in a wistful world of watercolor.

So we ask, what potential does design have to do the same?

In this space we imagine a home in which creative heritage lives on in the useful, everyday things as well as the art on the wall. At the centre, the award-winning IO stool shows how Uli can be used as a functional ornament, part of the form, structure, and bending process of the steel object.

Tayo Adenaike’s “FLUID STEEL” on the right was painted in direct response to the IO stool, showing a cycle of continuity in conserving our culture through art and design.

Homenkà is a design studio and research collective making objects and posing questions that continue culture.

Welcome home.

Tayo Adenaike’s “FLUID STEEL” has been sold.
The IO stool is sold out but click here to be notified of the next collection