Oríkì (Act II):Tales by Moonlight examines the tension between abstracted and intrinsic value through the medium of sand-cast aluminium. Named after the beloved Nigerian children’s television series (aired 1984–2002 on NTA), Tales by Moonlight highlights the personal and collective narratives central to the designer’s collaborations with region- and need-specific craft communities near his hometown, Lagos.

Marcus-Bello’s inquiry into globalisation, production chains, and supply-demand dynamics began through his relationship with Lagos-based auto part casters who repaired his car. His questions around what a material’s role in society is, how does it arrive, who controls its lifecycle—led him to a cottage industry across West Africa that fabricates replacement parts for imported second-cycle cars from the U.S. and Europe. These vehicles, often abandoned abroad due to planned obsolescence, find renewed life through locally made facsimiles cast in aluminium—the most affordable, rapid, and recyclable material available.

Tales By Moonlight highlights the designer’s central interest in process and traditional, often vernacular, methods of fabrication. In this collection of formally-related typologies of seating, tabling, presentation, and spatial division, a series of cones, planes, discs, and bowls abstractly reference forms often found in the formalized industrial design of autoparts, thus reframing the cultural, economic, and material genesis of Marcus-Bello’s work.