The Art of Storytelling Through Chairs invited Ohio State University Department of Design first-year students to retrieve old, broken, or forgotten chairs of various styles and origins and rethink those objects through a series of workshops led by British Nigerian designer Yinka Ilori. Students conceptually reworked the design of their “found” chairs to illustrate one of ten Nigerian parables chosen and shared by Ilori. The workshop utilized “blitz rework,” where students collaborated in small groups and completed the design project in one day. Illustrations and interpretations involved trial and error, play, painting and reupholstering each chair using concepts of joy and color as a palette.
The workshop was co-led by Yinka Ilori and Klara Zepp from the Yinka Ilori Studio; Deb Scott, Associate Professor of Teaching in the Department of Design; and Paul Tenwalde from the Studio of Arts and Design Research in the College of Arts and Sciences.
This four-day artist visit was made possible by Fabienne Munch, Chair of the Department of Design, with a grant from the Ohio State University Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts.
