{"id":67217,"date":"2023-09-29T16:20:58","date_gmt":"2023-09-29T16:20:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/talkcelnews.com\/?p=67217"},"modified":"2023-09-29T16:20:58","modified_gmt":"2023-09-29T16:20:58","slug":"andu-masebo-designs-objects-that-tell-the-stories-of-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/talkcelnews.com\/entertainment\/andu-masebo-designs-objects-that-tell-the-stories-of-others\/","title":{"rendered":"Andu Masebo Designs Objects That Tell the Stories of Others"},"content":{"rendered":"

During this year’s London Design Festival, a gallery inside the Victoria & Albert Museum played host to a furniture collection made entirely from an old Alfa Romeo. Titled “Part Exchange”, the project was initiated by London-based designer Andu Masebo. But he wants you to know that it wasn\u2019t just him involved.<\/p>\n

“I learned to make things before I learned to design them,” he tells me from his east London workshop. \u201cIt means that when I design, I quite often try to understand why things are made a certain way, who has made them, and what is the voice of the person making it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the case of Part Exchange, those voices came from the car’s past owners. Somehow miraculously, Masebo had managed to track down a scrap-destined Alfa Romeo \u2013 a make he selected for its romantic yet unreliable connotations \u2013 that came complete with receipts for every repair and MOT. With the paper trail, he was able to track down every past owner of the vehicle, and with that, the idea for the project was born. 1 of 6<\/span><\/span><\/span>2 of 6<\/span><\/span><\/span>3 of 6<\/span><\/span><\/span>4 of 6<\/span><\/span><\/span>5 of 6<\/span><\/span><\/span>6 of 6<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI got stories from them, about where they went in it and what it meant to them \u2013 why they bought it, why they sold it,\u201d he says. From these stories, Masebo began to develop ideas for furniture pieces. Each would somehow reflect a personal anecdote, and could be reinserted into the lives of the people who had once lived with the car. The idea of the car itself being \u201cpart of the furniture\u201d is a theme he explored too, while also recognising the polarity of opinions surrounding the automotive industry. \u201cA car is a fascinating object in that it’s completely changed the way the world works. It’s changed the shape of the environment, of course, but it’s also given freedom and new possibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere aren’t many design objects that enter your life as much as a car. You give it a name, you take it on holiday, children are born in it, some children are even conceived in it!\u201d<\/p>\n

While he didn’t quite explore the latter with the previous owners of this particular car, the research process gleaned some emotive and fascinating back stories. One person, Jean, speaks of the part it played in the years following the death of her husband, while another described how the car provided a secluded getaway for him and his later-to-be wife.