isabel, Andi, Catherine, Sana and i make fabric and cover the chair, two boxes make an excellent chair

Reflections posted on teams, my first attempt, interesting none of the images in the essay copied

Yinka Shoniabre a British Nigerian artist, is well established in the UK and internationally recognised. Probably most well-known for‘Nelson’s ship in a bottle’ an installation on the 4th Plinth in Trafalger Sq.

Shoniabre sculptural works are finely executed, with a fine and lightly humorous take on serious subjects. In almost all of the work, West African ’lost wax’ Batik prints appear. Sometimes the fabrics are sourced commercially or, like, Nelson’s ship specially printed.

Our group of five were tasked to produce a 3d ‘chair’ inspired by Shoniabre. We had an excellent discussion, we all knew of some of Shonibare’s work, one of the group had expert knowledge of the work and was helpful in guiding the discussion. It was easily decided to fabricate a chair and ‘upholster’ it in our own versions of west African prints. We made our designs in different ways, with a good idea of the styles and palate of West African prints. Sana and I went ‘dumpster diving’ and found some perfect boxes in a nearby bin.

The discussion of the chair, its appearance and message was very clear. My experience of West Africa I made the points: traditionally in the country people sat on the ground, tribal chiefs had a stools as symbols of authority. These days the most common chair in Nigeria is a plastic garden chair. In many of Shonibare’s work the characters are off balance, or uneasily balanced on chairs or single wheels. We chose to have the chair tilted backwards in an optimistic but dangerous way, a chair not easy to sit on, but not a chief‘s stool

We worked on our fabric designs, one was painted, two drawn with wax crayon, one printed with a clever use of a bit of polystyrene we got from the bin, I tried stencilling in a repeat pattern

Fortunately, the boxes were perfect to fabricate a chair, one for the legs, the otherfor the curved back and legs in the form of a garden chair, We divided our tasks, I was keen to fabricate the chair with Sana, the other three started on the upholstery and erecting three easels to suspend the work.

We finished in the time given and produced a very attractive chair, colourful, poignent and with some significance in its ‘off balance’ state.

It was with some sadness that we took it back to the bin.

We learnt many lessons in group endeavour, I believe we all felt significantly invested in the project without jealously or feeling the pressure of our peers, it was a true collaborative process The fabric, designing and making was very creative and we all learnt from each other’s ides, I finished off my time-consuming stencil with polystyrene printing.

I found that designing and fabricating the chair was