Copper has become a rare commodity in Africa, largely due to the convoluted cycle that it’s fed into, whereby, after its extraction, the metal is exported for processing and then imported back to the continent for sale at a premium. The cost, both financial and energetic, that this system places on the sourcing of raw copper reoriented the artist’s focus onto Lagos’ second-hand metal market, where copper is only sold for bulk scrap, by the kilogram.

Procured with the aid of an extensive network of community members, those offering the titular whispers of material promise, the artist liaised with both crafts- and trades-people in order to utilize copper in the fabrication of four editions for tabling, seating, and lighting, both independent and merged in their function.

Epitomizing this social-communal effort is Daybed (2025). With its supports ingeniously cast from a single mold—Marcus-Bello collaborated with the same group of casters who helped realize the aluminum works that comprised Act II of the Oríkì series—this multifaceted work extends its lustrous surface from the seat of a chair, the two planes joined by a shared backrest from which a single candle holder extends upwards—a beacon and triangulation of use.