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# Human Nests and Other Highlights of African Design
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/african-design-highlighted-in-tribeca-with-human-nests/
- Published: 2015-04-16T03:08:48.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:31:35.000Z
- Description: Designer Porky Hefer's organic capsules are part of Grains of Paradise: Contemporary African Design in collaboration with Southern Guild, a group exhibition at a gallery specializing in contemporary design.
- Author: Allison Meier
- Tags: Art, Design, Review, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:08 (2014, 2015, part 2)

![Custom hanging "Nest" sculptures by Porky Hefer, made from woven cane with metal framing & jute ropes, at R & Contemporary (all photos by the author for Hyperallergic)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/03/grainsofparadise14.jpg)

Custom hanging “Nest” sculptures by Porky Hefer, made from woven cane with metal framing & jute ropes, at R & Contemporary (all photos by the author for Hyperallergic)

Nests sized for humans crowd the front of Tribeca’s [R & Company](https://www.r-and-company.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com), with a step ladder and curves of woven cane beckoning as quiet retreats (although a sign firmly states “PLEASE DO NOT CLIMB”). The organic capsules by designer [Porky Hefer](http://www.animal-farm.co.za/?ref=hyperallergic.com) are part of [*Grains of Paradise: Contemporary African Design in collaboration with Southern Guild*](http://www.r-and-company.com/exhibition%5Fdetail.cfm?id=171&extoGet=featured&designer%5Fid=0&ref=hyperallergic.com)*,* a group exhibition at a gallery specializing in contemporary design.

![Kassena series cabinet by Dokter and Misses](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/03/grainsofparadise10.jpg)

Dokter and Misses, “Headrest” from their Kassena cabinet series (2015), peach-colored hand-painted white beech with interior lighting (click to enlarge)

R & Company has regularly highlighted international designers not frequently shown in New York, such as an [exhibition on Korean design](http://www.r-and-company.com/exhibition%5Fdetail.cfm?id=110&extoGet=previous&designer%5Fid=0&ref=hyperallergic.com) in 2013 and [Brazilian furniture designer Joaquim Tenreiro](https://www.r-and-company.com/exhibition%5Fdetail.cfm?id=117&extoGet=previous&designer%5Fid=0&ref=hyperallergic.com) last January. *Grains of Paradise* is a collaboration with the Cape Town–based gallery [Southern Guild](http://www.southernguild.co.za/news/?ref=hyperallergic.com) and its principals Trevyn and Julian McGowan. Alongside the hanging basketwork by Porky Hefer are towering cabinets by [Dokter and Misses](http://www.dokterandmisses.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com) of Johannesburg, creature-like furniture of repurposed carved wood and braided leather by [Babacar Niang](http://designnetworkafrica.org/people/nulangee/?ref=hyperallergic.com) of Senegal, and elaborate ceramics involving sculpted animals by [Ardmore](http://www.ardmoreceramics.co.za/?ref=hyperallergic.com) of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

The title *Grains of Paradise* might seem random with no seeds in sight, but it’s derived from the West African spice [*Aframomum melegueta*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aframomum%5Fmelegueta?ref=hyperallergic.com)*.* Used as both a medicinal and ritual plant in Africa, it was introduced to the West as a prized type of pepper. In that vein, the exhibition suggests an exchange of influences, such as the *Kassena* series of cabinets by Dokter and Misses with the flavor of midcentury modernism in their bright colors, hidden compartments, and tall rounded shapes, mingling with the influence of [angular patterns on the earth architecture](http://www.designboom.com/architecture/gurunsi-earth-houses-of-burkina-faso/?ref=hyperallergic.com) of the Kassena tribe. The ceramics by the Ardmore collective, [established in the Drakensberg Mountains](http://www.ardmoreceramics.co.za/world-of-ardmore/about?ref=hyperallergic.com) by Fée Halsted as a place for studio training with a built-in market for its artists, has something almost rococo in the ornate teapots and vessels where the flora and fauna of Africa are used as playful handles and decorations. Some of the chairs and tables by Babacar Niang appear to balance on feet, the curving of their forms seeming to border between object and animal. As with many design installations, *Grains of Paradis*e can feel as much like showroom as an exhibition, but from those buoyant nests by Porky Hefer hovering hugely in the windows to the more subtle and strange work by Niang lurking in the game, it’s an animated demonstration of some of the design happening in Africa that’s not often shown in New York.

![Custom hanging "Nest" sculptures by Porky Hefer, made from woven cane with metal framing & jute ropes](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/03/grainsofparadise2.jpg)

Custom hanging “Nest” sculptures by Porky Hefer, made from woven cane with metal framing & jute ropes

!['Grains of Paradise: Contemporary African Design in collaboration with Southern Guild' at R & Company](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/03/grainsofparadise3.jpg)

Furniture made from carved African hardwood with leather braid by Babacar Niang

!['Grains of Paradise: Contemporary African Design in collaboration with Southern Guild' at R & Company](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/03/grainsofparadise5.jpg)

Furniture made from carved African hardwood with leather braid by Babacar Niang (with Dokter and Misses in the background)

![Custom hanging "Nest" sculptures by Porky Hefer](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/03/grainsofparadise6.jpg)

Custom hanging “Nest” sculptures by Porky Hefer

!['Grains of Paradise: Contemporary African Design in collaboration with Southern Guild' at R & Company](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/03/grainsofparadise8.jpg)

Ceramics by Ardmore

!['Grains of Paradise: Contemporary African Design in collaboration with Southern Guild' at R & Company](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/03/grainsofparadise7.jpg)

Detail of ceramics by Ardmore

![Dokter and Misses, "Watchtower" from their Kassena cabinet series (2015), grape-colored hand-painted white beech](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/03/grainsofparadise9.jpg)

Dokter and Misses, “Watchtower” from their Kassena cabinet series (2015), grape-colored hand-painted white beech

![Custom hanging "Nest" sculpture by Porky Hefer (2014), woven cane with metal framing & jute ropes](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/03/grainsofparadise11.jpg)

Custom hanging “Nest” sculpture by Porky Hefer (2014), woven cane with metal framing & jute ropes

![Custom hanging "Nest" sculpture by Porky Hefer (2014), made from woven cane with metal framing & jute ropes](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/03/grainsofparadise12.jpg)

Custom hanging “Nest” sculpture by Porky Hefer (2014), made from woven cane with metal framing & jute ropes

!['Grains of Paradise: Contemporary African Design in collaboration with Southern Guild' at R & Company](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/03/grainsofparadise1.jpg)

View to ‘Grains of Paradise: Contemporary African Design in collaboration with Southern Guild’ from outside R & Company

[Grains of Paradise: Contemporary African Design in collaboration with Southern Guild](http://www.r-and-company.com/exhibition%5Fdetail.cfm?id=171&extoGet=featured&designer%5Fid=0&ref=hyperallergic.com) *continues at R & Company (82 Franklin Street, Tribeca, Manhattan) through April 30.*