NISH Explores the Balance of Strength and Softness in Furniture
Furniture has always shared more with dance than we tend to acknowledge, with both disciplines relying on rhythm, proportion and somatic awareness. For Tanisha Neill, founder of Cape Town-based furniture design studio NISH, the relationship has shaped the way she designs from the beginning.
“I think dance has influenced my work more through discipline than fluidity,” Neill says. “As a dancer, my strength was always power. I loved strong, grounded movement. At the same time, I was constantly being reminded to soften my hands, release my shoulders and find moments of lightness within that strength.” These qualities manifest in her furniture through clean lines and bold silhouettes balanced by subtle curves, softened edges and restraint: a dialogue between strength and softness traced to her dance training.
This search for balance extends into the workshop, where ideas undergo many iterations through craftsmanship and material refinement. “I like getting ideas onto paper quickly without judging them too early,” she says. “The real design happens alongside the making. Materials always have their own opinions, and I love adapting a piece as I learn what the timber, steel or stone wants to do.”
Material exploration has become a defining characteristic of NISH. Stainless steel currently occupies much of Neill’s attention, prized for its durability and honesty, while she has developed an increasingly nuanced understanding of timber. “I’m particularly drawn to the warmer timber tones that were prominent in the 1970s,” she says.
For Neill, one of the advantages of designing in South Africa is the absence of a prescribed design language. While international audiences once associated South African design largely with traditional craft, weaving and beadwork, she believes today’s designers have greater freedom to create work true to themselves. “Perhaps that’s what contemporary South African design is becoming: not one recognisable style, but a collection of individual voices. Our diversity, rather than a single aesthetic, is what makes our design landscape so exciting.”
Credits
Text by Shai Rama
Images: Supplied