Featured product: Toro Dining Chair
Designer: OKHA
Photography: Niel Vosloo
TORO the Spanish word for bull.
The carbon stained ash with its subtle satin finish and the dense, near black velvet, recall the glossy black hide of the animal, with daylight reflecting off flanks and haunches. When we conjure up an image of the animal, we etch a strong, defined silhouette, a form at once powerful and sensual and invariably dressed in black.
The sculpted arms symbolise the bull’s horns, they are strong and assertive with intent as is the structure of the chair which possesses a very physical and rigorous construction. “I like to think that the chair has a powerful physical presence, like the bull it is loaded…charged with an assured power,” says OKHA Creative Director, Adam Court.
The stance of the Toro Dining Chair is very robust and firmly rooted and as with the bull its kinetic forward power comes from its rear haunches which drive forwards.
Going into detail, Court explains that he is “A fan of Brazilian Modernism, of Jeanneret and Prouve and the A frame structure of the legs are a direct homage to this…in addition they also happen to reference my first name which is a small moment of cosmic synchronicity that I’m happy to take.”
Court adds that he is “a Toro (Taurus), the chair is some-what of an ego manifestation, I usually design objects with a brief, persona or project in\ mind, with this chair I decided to create something that represents aspects of my character both physically and physiologically…so it’s quite self-indulgent really, meditatively narcissistic.”
“When designing the chair I liked aspects of both the A frame and straight leg versions, they are the same chair but not the same chair, it’s like the same word said but with a different intonation, it can mean and express many different things, I like that, I like that with small changes you can say very different things,” says Adam.
The chair is very comfortable, this is a chair to invest in and merge with both physically and emotively.
