Object and Thëory

Strengthening your discovery, a visual editorial featuring Mr Ibukun Ayoola from Atamora pottery village is now live, click the link my bio and read the full article, it’s a beauty. 🪷

So pleased to share my brand new digital cover featuring the esteemed pottery artist, Mr Ibukun Ayoola, founder of Atamara pottery village. This article is live and it’s very different. I took a journey through south-western Nigeria and began to think about “Strengthening your discovery”. Enjoy the visual field notes on why physical therapy is the foundation for creative liberation. Click the link in my bio for more🔗🪷🐚

Object & Theory is my new design salon a media space for makers, archivists, material enthusiasts, positioning the voices shaping contemporary culture. So happy to share nearly 1,000 subscribers have joined my SubStack mailing list [Link in bio], and the messages have been overwhelming: this space is needed. I paused the project before to build other people’s visions, but the real work, the stories, the images, the research, and the sentiment, lives here. We explore: design as culture, heritage as methodology, objects as theory, people as the archive, Africa and its diaspora as a creative engine, the earth and materiality, and the future of taste and creative leadership. This is a media platform, not a mood board, essays, digital digests, short films, field notes, interviews, and the build-up toward Issue One, a hardback hybrid book-magazine arriving in 2026. Intentional, honest, beautifully made, and rooted in culture. This is Object & Theory. (This is not the official cover 😏)

Introducing the incredibly intentional artist, Fiyin Koko 🌀 Enjoy our lengthy conversation remembering her transformative debut solo exhibition ~ 9-12-23, Ms Koko showcased a poignant body of paintings and sculptures. It was a pleasure to review the stunning exhibition which took place at Yenwa Gallery. Curated by @ugonnaibe Founder of @yenwagallery 🩵 Works made by @fiyinkoko 🩵 In good company always, love Ï&O.

Images of the Rotin Artisanal family business based in Lome, Togo 🇹🇬

Rhythm of the Earth continues. Enjoy my collection of photographs and words by me, taken over some time in attempt to understand our symbiosis with our ecosystem. There exists a connection between the earth and its people—a connection that transcends time and space, revealing a compendium of design concepts that have derived from our rites of passage. Rewards often reveal themselves in spectacular ways. I engage with stewards who practise in between the realms of moulding solid structures and the manifestations of future tropical aesthetics and functionality. 🌾Special Thank you to Rotin artisans a Togolese family business who specialize in raffia weaving. 🌾All images photographed & words by Christina Nwabugo.

Chapter two of Ïhe Oherë intentionally explores the significance of our journey towards making and living amongst Design offerings, emphasizing how our backgrounds and collective experiences shape these relationships. This chapter beautifully explores how historical narratives influence our understanding of form and function. Through photographs and oral histories documented, I have created pivotal moments that highlight these offerings. The intimate nature of the creators work reflects a deep appreciation for cultural and historical contexts that inform design. My commitment to this exploration showcases how making is an innate offering to this world. Image commissioned by Kinfolk magazine—Issue 53 🌀 The Vaughan-Richards residence, courtesy of Ms. Remi Vaughan-Richards 🌀 In loving memory of Mr Alan & Mrs Ayo 💐 Feeling very proud, can’t wait for you all to see.

Ïhe Oherë chapter two is underway, titled “DESIGN OFFERINGS”. Featuring incredible new stories. Introducing the legendary muse and creator Ms Remi Vaughan-Richards (Akinsemoyin). Queen Faaji of Ikoyi. To be in her space is to be blessed and adorned with knowledge on Nigerian history and origins of design. This story means so much to me, because her home is more than the name, the family’s abode is a symbol of natures collaboration, identity and divine relationships. I can’t wait for you to read it all. 🌀

It was important for me to merge my research across West African regions and other cultures where the symbiosis between tradition and artistic expression is profound. From the Gourounsi tribe in Tiébélé, Burkina Faso, to the Igbo tribe in Nigeria and the Meena tribe in India, women have consistently upheld and developed motif designs that bring warmth and identity to their dwellings. Through their rhythmic interaction with the earth, these women use its provisions as the foundation for preservation. Highlighting Jyoti Bhatt (b.1934—Gujarat), an esteemed archivist, photographer, and modern artist raised in India, was essential. Bhatt has spent a significant portion of his life documenting these cultural expressions, ensuring they are digitally archived and accessible for future generations. His work, distinguished by Indian cultural symbols such as the peacock, parrot, and lotus, beautifully blends traditional motifs with contemporary artistic techniques. My essay on this topic was previously available on Ïhe & Oherë, but if you missed it, don’t worry—more is underway.

Pleased to share my first-ever review of the innovative @amy_sall ’s debut as an author—The African Gaze, published by Thames & Hudson. To me, Sall is a true innovator—a multi-hyphenate who brought her unique archival interests in African cinema and photography to the digital space in its early days @sunujournal birthed an interactive way to display and view archives. Amy Sall is a talented lecturer and collector deeply inspired by cultural production and human rights, she has manifested this powerful combination into a bright and necessary tome. Forever proud of you, Amy. Thank you, @aidannovaa , for featuring my first AD write-up. 🧿

For centuries women have contributed a significant value when making a home, the traditional dwellings were symbolic and truly meaningful. Symbolism is a huge make up of secret societies. Helping to restore and gate-keep fragile heritage. Motifs speak, inspire and inform stories, personally I’m glad we are collectively sharing and supporting ancestral work. I wonder how different communities across the globe will recreate their ideas on pictograms. This topic and practice relies on our continuous conversations with nature. How do you stay connected within nature to inform your concepts? Of course this caption is a snippet from my essay titled “Rhythms of the Earth: Exploring memory, spirituality, and African visual Art in harmony with Gaia” where I dissected what motifs truly mean to our current design landscape today. This research is ongoing. Tiébélé community photographed by Jacquault Compound entryway - Igbo (not defined) women’s society

No Myth all real Magic: Spirit Architecture along the Sepik River In the early 20th Century across the Sepik River area spectacular ceremonial houses were made along what is known to be the longest river in Papua New Guinea. They were known as ‘Haus tambaran’ in Papua New Guinea. Architecture used for spiritual purposes is such a beautiful concept to embrace in current day practices. That is personally why I loved Grace Wales Bonner’s 2019 Serpentine show, “A time for new dreams”. The designer curated her vision and fascination for shrines and the assembly of entities. This correlation is important to our contemporary design existence.