Benin in West Africa and Japan in the Far East. Ancestral pottery and space-age video games. King Houndekpinkou, an emerging ceramic artist based in Paris, pulls together these seemingly disparate influences to create sculptures characterised by bursts of bold colour, playful spikes and cracked surfaces. They are not indebted to any style or school, but instead reflect his background and perspective: a life defined by happy accidents.
Of Beninese origin, Houndekpinkou, 34, was born and raised in the suburbs of Paris. As a video game-obsessed kid, he developed a fascination for Japan’s pop culture. ‘My favourite was Zelda for its colours and motion graphics. I also loved the solution-seeking side of the games. For me, Nintendo also meant getting to spend time with my cousin, who was my playmate,’ recalls the ceramist. Today, his creative universe still feeds off this childhood passion: he is fond of dynamic forms, eye-popping colours and human connection.
This story is from the September 2021 edition of Wallpaper.
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This story is from the September 2021 edition of Wallpaper.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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Guiding Light - Designer Joe Armitage follows his grandfather's footsteps in India, reissuing his elegant midcentury lamp and creating a new chandelier for Nilufar Gallery
For some of us, family inheritances I tend to be burdensome, taking up space, emotionally and physically, in both our minds and attics. For the London-based designer and architect Joe Armitage, however, a family heirloom has taken him somewhere lighter and brighter, across generations and continents, and into the path of Le Corbusier. This is the story of a lamp designed by Edward Armitage in India 72 years ago, which has today been expanded into a collection of lights by his grandson Joe.
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