Italian material company Alpi has partnered with Stephen Burks Man Made to create an installation inspired by the art and ceremonies of the ancient Kuba kingdom. Unveiled at this year’s Design Miami fair, The Lost Cloth Object features four key components, each meticulously crafted from Alpi’s wood veneer.
Burks developed a wooden pattern influenced by Kuba textiles, and, working alongside Alpi’s craftspeople, transformed the solid veneer into pieces that evoke the fluidity of fabric. Each section of the installation is expertly matched, a challenge that Alpi president Vittorio Alpi describes as the kind of project that brings three generations of his family’s material to life. “When Stephen proposed The Lost Cloth Object, it felt like a moment of magical creativity,” he said. “It represents a consideration of design as a cultural practice, and its visual language interprets the material and reinvents it to tell a new story.”
From Kinshasa to Contemporary Design
Burks, who founded Stephen Burks Man Made in 2003 and collaborates with Malika Leiper, was inspired to develop the pattern following a trip to Kinshasa, where he learned directly from Kuba arts practitioners. “We’re not interested in mimicking the beautiful, prestigious cloths that exist in museums all over the world,” he said. “On the contrary, we’re interested in a hybrid project that creates space for new expressions of Kuba in new materials, in collaboration with industry like Alpi, to extend the Kuba arts traditions into the future.”
The installation, described as a “ceremonial site,” is composed of elements such as a rocking stool, a rocking ottoman, and a curved partition. Burks intentionally avoids defining a fixed function for the pieces, emphasizing that the work is a questioning of design and material practice rather than a finite product.
Connecting Cultural Movements
In addition to Kuba influences, Burks drew inspiration from Alpi’s history collaborating with Italian design legends such as Alessandro Mendini and Ettore Sottsass. “It was powerful for us to make that connection that joins African cultural movements to Italian cultural movements,” he said.
The Lost Cloth Object is on view at Design Miami until December 7 as part of a small group show curated by Glenn Adamson, offering visitors a thoughtful exploration of material, movement, and cross-cultural storytelling.