South African artist Andile Dyalvane's sculptural iThongo seating collection was crafted from hand-coiled clay and informed by significant words in the Xhosa language.
The ceramic designer's collection consists of 18 stools and chairs with each piece representing one of over 200 symbols that Dyalvane has created.
Each symbol stands for an important word in the language spoken by the Xhosa people in South Africa's Eastern Cape, where the artist was born.
Top: Andile Dyalvane's exhibition is on show at Southern Guild. Above: the collection consists of 18 seats
The name of the collection means ancestral dreamscape, and the chairs symbolise words including entshonalanga (sunset), igubu (drum), umalusi (herdsman) and izilo (totem animals).
"In many ways, all my works are interwoven in sketchbook incubation," Dyalvane told Dezeen. "All speak of transitional periods throughout my growth, both literal and spiritual. My works acknowledge and celebrate my ancestral lineage, heritage and community that raised me."
"The symbols themselves began coming through to me a few years back as messages from my ancestors through the ancestral dreamtime landscape which we call iThongo."

Each chair embodies a symbol
The iThongo ceramic seats are all made from hand-coiled clay. They sit low to the ground, evoking traditional seats that were designed to sit close to the earth, which was revered as a portal for ancestral communion.
Dyalvane sculpted the seats, which ar...