FLORIAN OKWU
Pets are original hand-carved sculptures* which use all the ways of thinking, tools and visual languages I employ in my larger work. I don’t like to spend too long thinking about the design for a pet, it should happen intuitively, sketched onto the material immediately before I begin carving. Their size allows for a really interesting fluency in intention. Shapes manifest soon after they were conceived, and each Pet quickly develops its own unique personality and presence. Between collections I’ve gone through phases of questionable affection to these little creatures, but I keep coming back to them for a reason. They bring something sweet to this world, re-contextualizing our spaces: Turning tables into landscapes or sculptures and plants into colossal, mysterious structures... They engage the imagination in ways that bring me back to childhood, and I need to continue making them to see how far they can go.
I can't really know how others interact with the Pets they acquire from me, but it brings me pleasure to think that in time, they become integrated into others' mythologies just like they do into my own.
I first began working on my Pets as a means to experiment with new materials. Their original shape made use of a simple combination of elements: Beneath their little bodies lay a 4 part crossvault arch which softly extended into thin legs, while on top, a convex bulging surface met a single, perfectly circular head. Each of these characteristics allowed me explore, in a contained way, how it felt to work with the material from start to finish: The smell of the dust, its hardness against a knife or file, flexibility, polishing... The Pets offered a baseline and it was to my suprise how positively people around me reacted to them. Only a couple months later I sold out an entire collection in a single day.
In the two years since that day, I’ve sold over 80 additional pets.
It would be dishonest to say there haven’t been some hiccups along the way. I’ve had to reconsider my relationship with these little creatures this past year. Suprisingly, selling them isn't the problem, part of the fun comes from what feels like raising these little animals and sending them out into the world. What causes issue is the repetition. I don't want to become bored by my Pets. I think it can be easy to lose sight of original intentions when selling a successful product. Even though they began as experiments, they also began as art. The most recent collection was an attempt to re-ignite that flame, every piece its own personal sculpture, entirely distinguishable from the next; Each a practice of artistic vocabulary, and formal composition. This is how I plan to move forward: The Pets, sold under the okflo umbrella are an opportunity to sketch, play, and collaborate with the world around me. It opens the door to partnerships with other artists and designers of all kinds to create unique, bizarre, playful, sculptural works of art, using Pets as the baseline for those forms. I'm hoping that through these projects I can meet new people, learn new skills, and engage with communities I have felt quite distant from. This is what fundamentally drives my new interest in these creatures, and if you would like to support that adventure, please do consider adopting one in the next collection!
Mahogany, Bloodwood, Wenge, Experimental Graphite techniques.2025, Re-ignition of the Pets through okflo
Mahogany with graphite finish, 2024, Sold to Private Collector
Mahogany, Black Walnut Burl, Maple, Spalted Tamarind, 2024.© 2025 Florian Okwu.