Hand-Carved Spoons
As part of Temitayo Ogunbiyi: You will wonder if we would have been friends (June 18–November 2, 2025), The Noguchi Museum Shop presents a collection of wooden spoons created by Lagos-based artist Temitayo Ogunbiyi and Broolyn-based designer and craftsperson Robert Seishin Rurup.
The spoons can be used for salt, spice, or other cooking ingredients, and reference the form of an omorogun, or turning stick, a versatile cooking tool used in African cuisine. Crafted from either walnut or ash, the shapes are designed by Ogunbiyi and hand-carved by Rurup.
Each spoon also features one of two phrases by Ogunbiyi in ink: “you will…” and “you will do what you love.” Over the past decade, Ogunbiyi has chosen “you will” as a recurring titling convention for her artworks, a phrase typically used as a declarative wish for good fortune in Nigeria. Like the artworks on display in Ogunbiyi’s exhibition at The Noguchi Museum, the spoons can be seen as a reference to global histories, community, and playful functionality.
The spoons are available to purchase in-person or via inquiry at shop@noguchi.org.
About Temitayo Ogunbiyi
Born in Rochester, New York, in 1984, Temitayo Ogunbiyi grew up in the outskirts of Philadelphia. Her work explores influences ranging from Yoruba hairstyling and Victorian hairwork, to botanical forms and transnational travel. Now living in Lagos, Nigeria, Ogunbiyi’s interest in playground design developed through her experience raising her children in this city of over 20 million people, where she struggled to find public playgrounds. This, coupled with her own experiences growing up as a first generation immigrant in the United States, born to Jamaican and Nigerian parents, influences her creation of public play sculptures. These aim to present play and exercise as a right for all children and adults. With Temitayo Ogunbiyi: You will wonder if we would have been friends, Ogunbiyi addresses Isamu Noguchi as a sort of muse, reflecting on her discovery of Noguchi’s play concepts while conducting her own research into making affordable play structures out of common household objects or construction materials. Building on Noguchi’s complex biography and play sculpture designs, Ogunbiyi has created site-specific interactive installations for play, sculptures that can be used for music making, and an outdoor installation that features input from the greater museum community.
About Robert Seishin Rurup
Brooklyn-based designer and craftsperson Robert Seishin Rurup works in his design and fabrication studio Mokko Seishin. A Japanese-American owned studio, Mokko Seishin handcrafts heirloom quality furniture and objects for the home utilizing domestically and ethically sourced natural materials. Each piece is created by hand with the intention of maintaining a long life cycle and the lowest possible environmental impact when that cycle is complete. Carrying elements of Japanese and Scandinavian design, each work is aimed to deepen its environment’s connection to nature and promote clean, unencumbered living. Mokko Seishin means “spirit of woodworking” (木工 精神) in Japanese. All work is made in Brooklyn, New York, by Rurup unless otherwise credited.
