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Working primarily in aluminium, stone, bronze and brass, Jesse Ede looks to celebrate the rawness of uncontrollable outcomes from processes that are uncommonly used.
Born in Cape Town in 1985, Jesse Ede is a self-taught designer who favours a materials and process-driven approach to furniture design.
Ede’s childhood was spent at the workbench of his father, an artist, designer, carpenter and leather worker, schooling him in a wide array of skills and sparking a deep love for craft. For eight years he worked as an artisan all around the world, including a long stint as a carpenter for a boat-building company in Antigua. Upon returning to South Africa, he opened a small design and manufacturing studio that provided custom interiors and furniture installations for clients in the commercial sector.
Ede’s work for Southern Guild is the outcome of a great deal of experimentation with open-cast smelting. He favours exposing and highlighting the organic nature of his mediums – manipulating them to expose the contrast between the material itself and the man-made processes that form them into collectible furniture. He sources his materials himself, visiting local quarries to select a piece of Malmesbury slate or granite – the character of which dictates his final design. Every new project sees him taking on a new design challenge and adding to his repertoire of skills.
Ede has exhibited regularly with Southern Guild since 2016, when his Lunar table – a slab of recycled aluminium open-cast onto an upright block of slate – was selected for A New Wave, a group show of emerging South African designers.
He has constantly adapted and refined his technical processes to achieve more complex works on a larger scale since then, culminating in his solo exhibition, Of Space and Time, in 2023. Continuing his long-held interest in interplanetary phenomena, this immersive series is a poetic contemplation of our place in the universe and a deep engagement with the materiality of stone and metal.
Southern Guild has also presented his work at Design Miami, Christie’s First Open Design Auction, PAD London, Intersect Aspen and The Salon Art & Design in New York. His Lunar Diner tables are found in Xigera Safari Lodge’s main lodge, while his Orbit chandelier – hanging in the lodge’s wine cellar – was inspired by the movement of the galaxy’s moons around their planets.
Jesse Ede
Infinite Odyssey, 2023Bronze, granite
78.75 x 78.75 x 15.75 in. | 202 x 201 x 44 cm
AP2, Edition of 5, 2AP
Jesse Ede
Curvature of Spacetime, 2023Aluminium, slate
33.13 x 79.88 x 31.88 in. | 84 x 203 x 81 cm
AP2, Variable edition of 10, 2AP
Jesse Ede
Transit of Venus, 2023Bronze, granite
15.38 x 63 x 39.38 in. | 40 x 160 x 100 cm
Edition of 7, 2AP
Jesse Ede
Contemplation Point, 2023Aluminium, sandstone
49.63 x 43.25 x 28 in. | 116 x 108 x 84 cm
AP2, Edition of 7, 2AP
Jesse Ede
Stone Rocker, 2020Paarl grey granite, brass
19.25 x 21.63 x 11.75 in. | 49 x 55 x 30 cm
Edition of 20
Jesse Ede
Deep Space Mirror, 2019Bronze, Paarl grey granite
68.88 x 17.75 x 11.75 in. | 175 x 45 x 30 cm
AP1, Variable edition of 5, 1AP
Jesse Ede
Deeper Space Mirror, 2022Aluminium, Belfast black granite
68.88 x 17.75 x 11.75 in. | 175 x 45 x 30 cm
AP1, variable edition of 5, 1AP
Jesse Ede
Orbit, 2018Bronze, brass
55.13 x 45.25 x 45.25 in. | 140 x 115 x 115 cm
AP1, Variable edition of 5, 1AP
Jesse Ede
Eclipse Floor Light, 2018Aluminium, steel, stone, electrical components
43.25 x 43.25 x 9.88 in. | 110 x 110 x 25 cm
Unique
Group Exhibition
Los Angeles 22 Feb - 4 May 2024
Jesse Ede
Cape Town 24 Aug - 19 Oct 2023
Group show
Cape Town 19 Mar - 30 Jul 2023
Group show
Cape Town 29 Oct - 4 Dec 2020
Group show
Cape Town 9 Apr - 7 May 2020
Group show
Cape Town 26 Nov - 7 Feb 2019
Group Show
Cape Town 20 Sept - 7 Feb 2019
Group Show
Cape Town 19 Jul - 12 Sept 2018