Romeo Mignot Hodges b. 2000

Romeo Mignot Hodges (b. 2000) is a Paris-based artist and designer whose practice exists between functional design, sculpture and vernacular craft. He produces furniture, lighting and objects primarily from locally sourced green wood, working with hand tools and techniques that precede industrialised furniture production.

His objects are intentionally direct in their construction. Rather than removing the irregularities of wood, Mignot Hodges allows knots, variations, tool marks and inconsistencies to remain visible. He describes this attitude as “anti-perfect”: an alternative to the smoothness, repetition and conformity associated with much contemporary furniture production.

This approach gives his work a distinctly physical presence. Stools, lamps and furniture retain a clear relationship to their original material while simultaneously becoming sculptural forms. Function is present, but it does not fully determine the object. Instead, utility becomes one element within a broader exploration of material, proportion, gesture and construction.

Mignot Hodges’ practice is closely connected to his itinerant upbringing. Holding French, Canadian and American citizenship, and having spent significant periods of his life in Mexico and Australia, he has described himself as not feeling entirely connected to a single national identity. He grew up partly in Sayulita, a small fishing and surf village on Mexico’s Pacific coast, and travelled extensively from an early age with his family.

These experiences inform his interest in vernacular objects and traditional ways of making: forms shaped by necessity, local materials and accumulated knowledge rather than by industrial standards. His workshop and working methods deliberately reflect this position, placing physical engagement with material at the centre of the process.

The resulting objects carry a sense of immediacy and individuality. Each piece bears evidence of its making and of the particular piece of wood from which it emerged. In this way, Mignot Hodges questions conventional distinctions between furniture and sculpture, refinement and roughness, usefulness and expression.