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The Pews Sofa by Studio Kër
The Pews Sofa by Studio Kër

October 29, 2024

Studio Kër Looks at Design as Resistance

Former NFL star Michael Bennett’s format-defying furniture designs grapple with identity, history, and representation.

By: Adrian Madlener

For former pro football player Michael Benett, design is the perfect combination of physical activity and civic engagement. “Being in the NFL, it was all about the art of the body,” he says. “Over the years, I did a lot in the political realm and eventually wanted to see how I could bring this primarily 2D activity into 3D form by harnessing design as a form of resistance.” 

Through his education at Seattle’s Heritage School of Interior Design, Bennett discovered that furniture and installation design could serve as critical mediums, allowing him to explore issues surrounding identity, history, and representation in new ways. “An object is just an object unless it’s pulling you into a memory or a space of contemplation,” Bennett explains. “To have objects that push people to ask questions is a great opportunity to tell the history of Black and African diasporic culture.”

Michael Bennett is a longtime advocate for equity in both sports and design. Over the years, the NFL star–turned–multidisciplinary designer has written books (Things That Make White People Uncomfortable, Haymarket, 2018), started philanthropic initiatives such as his Bennett Foundation, and helped establish scholarship funds at RISD. Bennett and his family now split their time between Houston and Honolulu, where he’s currently pursuing a bachelors in architecture at the University of Hawaii.

In 2020, Bennett founded Studio Kër, which is named after the Wolof-language word for “home” but also connotes the kind of family gathering common in the Senegal-based culture, to which he can trace his roots. His Paw Paw’s Chair—produced using African sapele wood—challenges the standard settee typology with its unconventional forms distilled from different points of reference such as the shape of the okra plant prevalent in East Africa. His speculative designs often also suggest how functional wares can be used to inspire gathering. 

Paw Paw’s Chair by Studio Kër
Paw Paw’s Chair by Studio Kër

The notion of congregating is a concept that also carried over to his October 2023 Public Display outdoor installation, mounted as part of NYCxDESIGN’s Design Pavilion program. Various CLT wood stools were methodically arranged close together around a central altarlike element.

While his chosen materials are often deeply charged and suggestive, Bennett also carefully considers shape and challenges the standard dimensions of so-called universal furniture typologies. “When I go to Scandinavia or Japan, the furniture doesn’t fit me. But when I’m thinking about the work that I’m making, I’m thinking about the Black body in space.” 

Outdoor installation
Michael Bennett’s October 2023 Public Display outdoor installation, mounted as part of NYCxDESIGN’s Design Pavilion program.

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