21″x14″x13″, walnut, tamo ash, dye, graphite
This piece was a commission in which the client let me run wild. Playing with the Egyptian geometries I’ve been interested in, and adding some grafitti-inspired calligraphy allowed me to experiment with more relief work on the CNC router. The idea for a floating black cube was very much inspired by the Kaaba in Mecca.
“Arab Spring”
I had an idea that the entire drawers, not just the drawer fronts, could become part of the design if they were housed in a frame rather than a box.
In this close-up, you can see the intricate relief carving more clearly.
The three drawers, with their hand-carved pulls, are sized to fit paper, pencils, staplers, and other desk goodies.
The relief calligraphy wraps around all four sides of the black cube. I imagined these drawers sitting on a desktop, where they could be seen in the round, like a sculpture.
Here I’ve pasted together photos of each face of the cube. Reading from right to left, the calligraphy spells out the word “Arab Spring” in Arabic.
Beston Barnett Design 