Change Geers: Q and A with Kendell Geers on design that defies the mould

Carpenters Workshop Gallery, London and Paris, is represented for the first time in South Africa by world-renowned South African artist Kendell Geers. He brings his designs back to his homeland for the first time as the featured artist of the Guild design fair.

Inspiration behind this collection?

As a young South African artist I was impressed by the ingenuity of people living in the shanty towns. With a brick and a plank, they'd make a chair. With a car bonnet and a drum, they'd have a table. Their circumstance created a necessity and they used discarded things to come up with innovative ideas to make their lives easier. When I was invited to think about making furniture I decided to work with that same logic. I was inspired by the challenge of making furniture using tyres, packing pallets, oil drums and other discarded materials lying around big cities.

Is it difficult to transition from artist to designer?

I don't think of what I make in distinctive terms - it's counter-creative. I prefer to think of my furniture as works of art that you can sit on or sculptures that emit light. The way I work is close to the ''Renaissance" idea of the artist as a researcher and my interests take me from design to alchemy via philosophy.

Are you ever fully satisfied with a piece of art or design?

Every work introduces another. Ideas are never static. What seems complete one day needs another level another day as my understanding grows. I think of the works as talismanic gifts shared with the people who choose to live with them. So art becomes an open dialogue between the maker and the person who engages with the work. Art has the unique ability to change the world, one perception at a time.

Should Europeans appropriate African style to sell their designs?

Art should be an open exchange of spirit and ideas and nobody has the right to control creativity. ''African Style" is often European fantasy in the first place, brought to Africa by the colonial merchants a century ago. The world has opened up and if African artists and designers find inspiration in Brazil or Australia or Texas or even the Louvre, I think that's liberating.

Is it important for works of art to have messages?

Beautiful things are said more poetically with beautiful form and ugly truths need to be said with their own ugly spirit. Art or design not rooted in content is simply an empty sign and that's a waste of time, money, effort and resources. Beauty might be in the eye of the beholder, but that eye is never disconnected from the world.

• Guild is on at The Lookout, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town, tomorrow to Sunday, www.guilddesignfair.com