Engineering manifestation with Roham Shamekh's furniture designs

"What if we could engineer manifestation and could this idea influence design and creativity?" This provocation echoes within Roham Shamekh's imaginative art sculptures. With his furniture collections, Pharrell's Echoes and Terminator, the Iran-born designer harnesses the formidable power of thought and intention, transmuting personal experiences into sculptural narratives that challenge the boundaries between art, design and spirituality. In a recent conversation with STIR, Shamekh describes how manifestation became a centre point in his life due to a 'eureka moment'. "I realised there was no weight or mass attached to the thought—it was as light as a feather. By the laws of nature, this is how manifestation occurs," he notes.

The journey of the Dubai-based artist is shaped as much by his multicultural heritage as it reflects his innovative spirit. Shamekh's sculptural designs are imbued with the storytelling traditions of the Middle East, where history and myth converge into a singular, acutely personal expression. "The narratives here [in Dubai] are strong. You can see it locally in Nabati poetry admired and expressed all over the Gulf and in Iran and India, with epic tales like the Shahnameh and Mahabharata, two of the longest epics in history. This rich tapestry of textiles and narratives is deeply rooted in this region,” he reflects, capturing the interplay of cultural memory and contemporary vision in his eponymous product design practice.

The furniture designer's philosophy is rooted in the conviction that manifestation is not merely a mystical idea but an empirical process that transforms innermost beliefs into tangible artefacts. "Believe and stand in whatever you want," he proclaims in a call to action for his generation, urging them to harness their inner strength and shape their destinies. His process is an alchemy of personal experience and material experimentation employing a homemade resin mix enriched with a bone-like additive to achieve a luminous white texture. Shamekh's rigorous, yet instinctive method is reminiscent of the unpredictable nature of manifestation—a blend of intention, serendipity and the sheer possibility of creation.

Shamekh's chair designs for Pharrell’s Echoes are a tribute to the life force energy of manifestation, where the frequency of human thought and emotion begets reality. "This deeply personal collection celebrates the creative potential of human thought, the power of intention and the profound ways in which we influence one another, often unknowingly, shaping reality with the frequency of our thoughts, actions and the vibrational energy of our heart," the artist relays in an official statement. Inspired by a transformative moment when an unexpected intervention by American musician Pharrell Williams made him Shamekh's guardian angel and redirected his path, the artist recounts, "I became fascinated with how this manifestation worked. It became a focal point of reference in my life."

Central to the collection are the Universe Chairs as sculptural forms cast in resin and embossed with fluid curves of a male torso, encapsulating the shared human journey. The angelic wings adorning the muscular chairs are metaphors for transcendence and hope. Meanwhile, the silver-hued Manifestation Chair, adorned with cherubic guardians on either side of the backrest, elevates these themes into an idiosyncratic symbol of intelligent manifestation. "The point of the collection is that everyone can be each other's angels in life," the product designer tells STIR.

In striking contrast, the Terminator collection channels refined industrial design tempered with urban vibrancy to explore duality as the synthesis of destruction and renewal, chaos and order. Through the bold interplay of spray canisters with fluorescent, iridescent hues and the recurring motif of floral elements, the silver-hued candelabras titled Earth Monsters codify a new visual language that marries the raw energy of street art with the precision of contemporary design. It is a distinctive blend that defies convention, embodying the collision of art, technology and cultural hybridity. At the same time, the congruent Scavengers Ovoman chair mirrors the interwoven elements of men and women in society and the intricacies of multiple identities.

With Pharrell’s Echoes and Terminator, Shamekh is heralding a movement that posits that every individual carries the potential to be a guardian angel, shaping reality through the energy of their beliefs. His furniture designs provoke reflection, connection and the manifestation of a more compassionate and interconnected world. As he continues into this voyage of futuristic design, the contemporary artist remains committed to exploring new forms, materials and ideas that challenge the status quo and inspire a forward-looking dialogue among the creative community.

"I aim to bring soulfulness to stoic furniture. For me, there is no real distinction between art and design—those frontiers no longer exist. I like to create beautiful, soulful and artistic furniture—sometimes functional, sometimes purely symbolic," Shamekh explains. His works, transforming the ephemeral into the tangible and giving form to the unseen energies of the inner world, are a powerful reminder that with every thought, one holds the potential to influence lives and the world around them.