“Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind.”

Johannes Brahms

At Amanaki, we never cease to marvel at the craftsmanship: transforming earth and water to beautiful ceramics, wood to furniture, mental images to paintings. We have them displayed as a humble token of admiration: we have them preserved and treasured.

Wooden items are omnipresent in our space, serving multiple purposes as however you would perceive: emotional souvenirs (the words of Alain de Botton) of the past, reluctant witnesses of our present, commodities with both durability and aesthetic. Or simply, the harmony to be championed by the natural as well as cultural elements, manifesting in a contemporary setting. A garden of our own, the twists of course included.

As beacons of Southern craftsmanship’s heyday, the items must have witnessed their better days. The items seem to be carrying within a lot across their journey before us, possibly decades or half-century in length. Entertain yourselves by this thought: you become joined with a fragment of history upon the discovery that your workstation is indeed a former sewing machine, a treasured household item of the past.

Their dispositions and histories underneath shine through the barely noticeable hollows, scratches and fading shades. In our globalisation, and a visually dominant culture of nowadays, they teach us how resilience works, how small moments still matter. They are closer to us, and yet greater than we think. They remind us of the richness of human experience.

Let yourself be inspired and sheltered in this garden of ours.