PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (November 12, 2020) – The outdoor patio at the Brazos Valley African American Art Museum in Bryan, Texas, is about to get new African Adinkra-inspired seats and tables designed by a team of students and faculty from Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU)’s School of Architecture. Assistant Professor of Art Practice Ann Johnson is spearheading the Sankofa Furniture Project in collaboration with the Automated Fabrication & Design Lab at Texas A&M University. It’s all funded by a grant from the Texas A&M University System.
In January 2020, the team gathered on the Brazos Valley African American Museum’s patio site in Bryan, Texas, for a planning meeting.
Adinkra symbols originated in Ghana to represent universal concepts and aphorisms, such as nurturance, endurance, loyalty, and authority. The team will use the symbols from these three concepts to create original benches and tables that will permanently be housed at the museum.
A 3D model of the furniture designs.
“I introduce Adinkra symbols to my African American art class, and I thought that it would be really cool to make Adinkra-inspired furniture. Alexis Adjorlolo designed all the of furniture that is now being fabricated,” Johnson said. “Rueben Cheeks created these really cool deconstructed quilts inspired by the quilts of Gee’s Bend that we will use as well. The contemporary visual aspects and the endearment of making something from nothing propelled the quilters and quilts of Gee’s Bend to art world sensations.”
Adjorlolo and Cheeks attend a planning meeting in January at the Brazos Valley African American Museum.
Adjorlolo is a PVAMU architecture student. She and Cheeks, a PVAMU alumnus and current graduate student, are joined on the project by fellow architecture student Carlos Esparza and PVAMU Fabrication Lab Specialist Abel Simie. Together, they are using materials such as wood, concrete, metal, and even a 3D printer to bring Adjorlolo’s designs to life.
Adjorlolo paints alongside David Goltz, director of the Automated Fabrication & Design Lab at Texas A&M University.
“Working with the team has been great. Ann Johnson oversees the design side of the project, and it has been a blast. She is more than an artist, and her work reaches levels past creativity, so she has no issue pushing creative boundaries to allow for stronger designs from everyone on the team,” Adjorlolo said. “This experience gives us the skills to have a hand in various fields of architecture that doesn’t just include designing buildings, but creating and meaningful sculptures that people are able to interact with and appreciate.”
Johnson (left) pictured alongside Adjorlolo (right).
Johnson was approached to work on the project after she curated an exhibition titled She Matters at Texas A&M’s Wright Gallery in 2019. The team will also be creating custom planters for the outdoor seating area and chess sets inspired by historical figures in African American history.
“We are going to have some pieces created from oil drums, which dips into the history of Black Texans and the oil industry. Each furniture piece that Alexis designed has extreme historical significance,” Johnson said.
The project was initially slated to be completed in the spring 2020 semester, but pandemic disruptions pushed the date back to the end of the year. Once installed, the furniture will be part of the museum’s permanent collection.
Alexis Adjorlolo
“The most unexpected part of this project is the attention it is gaining, especially from Chancellor John Sharp, of the Texas A&M System, as well as being included in a short documentary that will air in late January or early February,” Adjorlolo said.
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By Jocelyn Kerr