01/09/2026
Untitled (after W.B.)
This is a particularly personal piece for me. It is the only bench I have ever made that directly reflects the techniques I learnt during my three-and-a-half-year apprenticeship with South African artist Wim Botha.
The piece was conceived around a sense of energy and movement. Each timber component is individually hand-machined and fitted. At one end, intricate timber joints build into a dense cluster of sharp bevelled angles. This forms the source, or origin, of the piece. From there, the geometry begins to break down into lines and facets that travel through the length of the bench, gradually becoming more controlled until they resolve into a precise point.
It was a way for me to translate techniques I had learnt while working with Wim into my own language as a designer, while also expressing my long standing love of working with timber. The construction methods themselves had been developed and refined over years, and I wanted that history of making to remain visible in the finished piece.
The bench is built around a 3-metre electro-galvanised mild steel structure with stainless steel legs and fittings, onto which the individually made timber elements are clad. The entire piece is finished in black, allowing the facets, shadows and changing planes of the timber to define the form.
Untitled (after W.B.) was created in 2014 for the Southern Guild Collection for Design Miami/Basel and was featured by Design Indaba in The Artist’s Apprentice.
More than a decade later, it remains an important piece for me. A record of what I learnt during that period, the influence of Wim’s work and approach, and how those techniques became part of my own development as a designer.
Untitled (after W.B.) is currently on show at our studio. Come by and see it in person.
