The new exhibition at Habitat’s Kings road store is called Graphic Africa. It is a fantastically put together furniture and accessories collection of 16 leading designers from 10 countries in East, West and Southern Africa.
The design pieces are very stylish, contemporary and surprisingly mainly one colour – monochrome Black! Or black and white, hence the name. This unexpected choice makes the visitor to view the items in a different light than what we normally expect from African colorful designs.
In this case the curation by Trevyn and Julian McGowan is very successful, and the show gives an indication of what the up-and-coming African sophisticated design language could look like.
Through a development program called Design Network Africa, external influencers are sharing design knowledge. Habitat is collaborated directly with one of the designers. West Africa-based textile designer Boubacar Doumbia worked with Rebecca Hoyes, Habitat’s Senior Designer to produce a collection based on ‘mud cloth’ techniques to create a limited edition textile collection.
Design Network Africa has the mandate of ‘Good business from Good Design’ – and is programme sponsored by The Centre for Culture and Development (CKU) coordinated by Source and funded by the Danish Government.
The exhibition is a great combination of traditional craftsmanship and authenticity, African original style references and modern sophistication.
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