Friction Ridge Bench, 2023

Edition of 10 + 1 AP Nifemi Marcus-Bello’s Oríkì (Act I): Friction Ridge, the first of several design Acts in an ongoing series typified by the exploration of identity, materiality, and craft production. Act I of Oríkì—so named after the multi-generational practice of praise poetry and spoken affirmation amongst the Yoruba people and Yoruba-speakers of West Africa—presents an edition of sculptural benches rendered in polished bronze and exhibited amidst a soundscape featuring the voice of the artists mother, Folake, as she delivers Marcus-Bello’s personalised oríkì. Eschewing the presentation of multiple work typologies in favor of the focus emphasized by the repetition of a single form, Marcus-Bello makes the physicality, texture, production process, and associated producer-craftsmen a vital part of these works’ outward legibility; indeed, the pieces are surfaced with the imprints of the designer and artisans involved in their fabrication. Friction Ridge—the name of these functional