BORDER I is a coffee table by British designer Samuel Ross from 2022, first presented in his 2023 solo exhibition “COARSE” in New York. The piece brings together fired wenge, planished aluminum, powder coated steel and melamine lacquer. The metal insets set into the burned wood represent wounds, standing for different regions of the African diaspora and the history of its exploitation. The work draws on Ross’s own lived experience and on the dualities at the centre of his practice, combining West African furniture, modernism and brutalism.

Fired wenge, planished aluminum, powder-coated steel, melamine lacquer

H 36 × W 190 × D 76 cm

H 14.17 × W 74.80 × D 29.92 in

Edition of 8

Photography by Timothy Doyon