Chairs Tsevis is a Visual designer of Greek origin, who lives and works in Paphos, Cyprus. He serves global clients including Pepsi, Nike, Toyota, IKEA, TIME, Fortune, WIRED, The Wall Street Journal and many more.
Charis Tsevis has studied design and advertising in Milan and Athens and he is a visiting professor at AKTO College, Greece. He frequently contributes to prominent publications with articles on design theory, aesthetics and cyberculture.
This series of artworks inspired by the Mandela House in Soweto and other similar matchbox houses in the African townships. Created for an African restaurant in Athens, Greece.
The Charis Tsevis loves Africa! For him it’s a constant source of inspiration and a solid point of reference for his life. He has travelled many times to the continent and he has studied Africa’s culture for long. This is a series of artworks inspired by the everyday African life but to also pay a tribute to Shaka Zulu and the long tradition of Zulus, Ndebele, Xhosa and all tribes of the land. They are created for and African restaurant in Athens.
The basic element He used is the brick. Borrowed directly from the typical matchbox houses in the African townships the brick for him is a symbol of people’s creativity. A symbol of courage to build a safe place for the family. His bricks are sometimes stable and others unstable. And they are filled with other forms of African creativity. Fabrics, art, leather, animal skins…
He has printed these digital files on wood in 8 colours. Collaborating with the great team of Quality Printing Solutions, they have printed in a Swiss Q Impala 2 printer. 7 colours plus white. The white ink is used under some of the bricks in various shades, creating the illusion that the bricks are pieces of paper or metal that are sticked on the wood.
They have added 3 layers of UV on the final artwork adding dimension to the artwork.
The inspiration:
The Mandela’s House in Soweto and other Matchbox houses in South Africa were my source of inspiration for this series.
The house is now a museum. Some bricks have been replaced with metallic plates caring informations and some powerful words like Hope, Equality, Liberation etc.
You can also see some photos from the printing session.
See more Image of this project
Image One, Image Two, Image Three, Image Four, Image Five
