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The IO stool engages the Igbo-Nigerian graphical language of Uli and its two-dimensional motifs and the practice of making low-seating, both dominant in historical Igbo society. It utilizes ornament in its production process, formative structure, and even in the shape of its negative spaces.
Ornament and Crime
Modernist architect Adolf Loos famously asserted, in his 1910 lecture Ornament and Crime, that the evolution of culture is synonymous with the removal of ornamentation from objects of everyday use. Though Loos built a logical foundation for his argument, its definitiveness tied intellectual progress to cultural creative contexts. Could it disregard the value of potential design contributions and continuations from cultures with a history of ornamentation practiced with intention and layered meaning?

"Uli" and the Machine
The IO stool is an experiment in culturally conscious product design with a particular focus on redefining and embodying ornament beyond the conventional limit of surface decoration into the very fabric of a machine-made object in its material manipulation, formative structure, and even in the shape of its negative spaces. Its design engages the Igbo-Nigerian graphical language of Uli and its two-dimensional motifs and the practice of making low-seating which were dominant in historical Igbo communities.
Details
The abbreviation IO is a nod to the Uli motif isi oji, though not in moniker alone. Each curve and gap tells an intentional story, seamlessly integrated into its structure. Isi oji, a direct abstraction of the negative shape seen when looking down onto the segments of a kola nut (another staple in Igbo culture), is echoed in the curved, triangular gaps between where the stool’s rolled, mild steel body barely meets and separates. The stool also plays with the use of uli pattern as a hinge that aids the bending process, becoming both a structural component and carrier of a distinct visual voice – a functional ornament. Even production waste - steel cutouts and stencils - can be used as a mark-making tool for fabric and other applications, essentially closing the circle and poetically returning to two-dimensionality.

This project is more than furniture; it is about the critical conversations sparked between tradition and innovation, culture and aesthetics, craft and the machine.
About Zoë Chinonso Ene
