Florian Okwu’s design studio, okflo, allows him to experiment with form & material, unbound by the seriousness which weaves through his larger-scale fine-art practice. Instead of controlled excavations of his identity, the studio acts as a space for Florian to create playful works of art that populate the landscapes and spaces of our lives rather than attempting to disrupt them with the traditional ambitions and ego often imbued in fine-art.

His “Pets”, inspired by his own longings and love for animals, are often carved from wood or cast into various metals. Small creatures designed to blend into our lives and homes… Originally, this series began as experiments: Simple carvings Florian used to better understand the beautiful diversity of wood species. Since then, the work has evolved into an object-language which now populates his inner mythologies, drawings and sculptural worlds.

Each creature is unique and handmade, yet, thematically: Completely unoriginal. It’s in this unoriginality, the simplicity and subtle nuances, that his Pets takes on their broader meaning. The human-fauna relationship has always been one of idolatry, reverence. It evokes questions that drive into the very nature of our species identity, our cultures, histories and myths since before the beginning of civilizations. Animal carvings are ubiquitous and the participation in this craft is one which joins an artist’s hands with a lineage of human beings, each reckoning with their own understandings of self, identity, and relationship with the natural world.

There is no one meaning or purpose to Florian’s Pets. Like music, and mathematics, they simply are, and have been. What Florian brings to this craft is a unique aesthetic language and the variety of intentions, moods and thoughts he has while working. Each sculpture becomes alive with a soul that he imbues within them, making each pet the owner of an identity which cannot be reproduced.

What will your relationship be with these Pets? Will it be one of care, neglect, reverence? These decisions are only yours to make, decisions which reveal the mirror that hides in every object.