Norman Teague on How He Keeps His Finger on the Pulse
The Chicago-based artist, designer, and furniture maker’s media intake spans Chicago’s PBS station, the podcast Culture Raises Us, and “Shameless.”
By Emily Jiang
June 8, 2023
16 minute read
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Norman Teague has a global outlook, but the artist, designer, furniture-maker, and educator keeps his work close to home. Based in Chicago, where he was born and raised, he sees his practice as a way to revitalize design traditions from Africa and the African diaspora and weave them into American design, as well as a way to enrich the South Side community he grew up in. His “Africana” furniture and homeware collection from 2021 incorporates hand-carved details that reference African tribal carvings, and includes a chair stamped with a phrase in the West African Yoruba language that translates as “Craft a Black circle of economy.” Other designs of his more subtly reference African aesthetics, employing crisscross and zigzag motifs or utilizing traditional techniques such as basket weaving.
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