JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA

WOOD: THERMALLY MODIFIED RED OAK

Siyanda Mazibuko is a South African, Johannesburg based furniture designer, maker and artist who obtained a wood furniture course with Furntech, where he did his training and incubation and established his practice in 2016. Mazibuko is one of Design Indaba 2016 class of emerging creatives and participates in the 100% design South Africa exhibition yearly. His activity in the design and art space led to an invite from Palazzo Litta gallery in Italy, to showcase his work at the Cultura Milano Focus Africa 2018 Exhibition. Most recently, he is one of the top 15 creatives of Business Arts South Africa. Occasionally commissioned for a diverse scope of custom made designer furniture, his work is inspired by a combination of culture and nature through the lens of energy in motion.

To create his bench, Mazibuko has drawn on a combination of indlamu, a Zulu tribal dance practiced in celebratory ceremonies, with isicholo, a women’s hat that developed out of a 19th-century conical hairstyle and is worn as symbol of married status.