Sinmi Stool: Design with a Black Intent

摘要

Norman league's Sinmi Stool (2012) is part of the broad history of American design, but it is also an important work of African American design, whose history and legacy remains underex-plored and woefully neglected. The stool asserts a new typology of furniture for leaning, rather than sitting, which derives its inspiration from the American urban landscape. Made of modern materials including bent plywood, it has antecedents in the technological and material innovations made popular following World War II. And yet, look closer and you will see that embedded in Teague's work is his exploration beyond the Western canon of design. He has been influenced by art and music, as well as by his self-identification as an African American designer with a personal connection to the Yoruba language. Teague is interested in questioning preconceived notions of how a piece of furniture should look and function. His approach involves reexamining objects and their intrinsic relationship with users to create designs that either revive existing categories of objects-whether chairs, tables, or stools-or invent them anew. His aim in rethinking standard typologies borrows from the work of designers such as Charles and Ray Eames and Norman Cherner, as well as designers working in Chicago throughout the 20th century. Henry Glass, for example, was known for his imaginative approach to furniture design and his use of innovative materials, and Charles Harrison reinvented everyday objects from children's toys, like the View-Master, to the plastic trash can. Both were longtime teachers at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where Teague received his master's in fine arts in 2016. The Sinmi Stool was, in fact, developed as part of his graduate studies. Teague explains that it was an important work for him to explore, "how I as a Black designer fit into the world of design."