Page 46 - FDMAsia MayJun2024

44 DESIGN MAY/JUN 2024 FDM ASIA | www.fdmasia.com

Pirouette “Communion focuses on the rituals that

bring to life the objects in our homes,
presenting them not just as lifeless items
filling our spaces but as artefacts rich with
emotional and spiritual meaning, animated

through our daily routines. For me it’s also
a question of functionality, and whose
functionality we admire and give space to.
The piece celebrates a practice that is so
local to West Africa presented in a new way
which gives emphasis to the ‘communal’
by allowing multiple people to participate in
Communion by Giles Tettey Nartey the process of making fufu. The everyday

Making his Milan debut, the British-Ghanaian designer Giles local ritual is therefore transformed into
Tettey Nartey used the commission as an opportunity to performance, exposing the beauty I have
explore culture, culinary tradition, and the rituals of domestic always seen in everyday Ghanaian life.”
life in Ghana.
Created from maple, which is dense and durable, Communion – Giles Tettey Nartey, Creative
is a table designed for the making of fufu—a West African

staple food, which is made by pounding cassava into a dough.
Nartey’s table reimagines this practice as a communal
performance, in which everyone comes together in the shared
act of making food.
His design features an outer table equipped with dents, Pirouette by Parti
grooves, bowls, and bumps to enhance the preparation and Inspired by the fluid movement of fabric and the childlike
cooking process, while a central table is dedicated to serving joy of spinning around, Parti’s Pirouette collection is a range
and communal dining. of timber furniture that explores complex geometric forms.
Included within the design are mortars (woduro) and pestles Translating the folds and creases of twisting and billowing

(woma) for grinding cassava, along with seating inspired by fabric into the solid forms of seats and tables is a demanding
both traditional Ashanti stools and typical kitchen stools and complicated process, usually associated with sculpture
found in Ghana. and the highest levels of craftsmanship.
Through its form, Communion aims to elevate the act of Collaborating with Jan Hendzel Studio, Parti embarked
pounding cassava to the level of performance, one person on a journey of experimentation, pushing the boundaries of
pounding, another turning the mixture in an almost choreographed a three-axis CNC machine to sculpt the wood and develop
fusion of movement and sound that is akin to dance. the furniture.