COUTEAU CHIEN

The potential taxonomy of the couteau CHIEN is a research and speculative project, part of the Élòj Kréyòl field design research led by studio dach&zephir since 2015-16, in which the duo explores the minored and lost histories of the French West Indies (Guadeloupe and Martinique). Though polyform and polysemous contributions (product design, visual essays, articles and education programs), Élòj Kréyòl proposes to re-embrace the diversity and plurality of historical and cultural aspects of Creole cultures in the Caribbean, by celebrating/inauguring the creolisation (of the design). A concept popularised by the Martinican poet and philosopher Edouard Glissant, though which the duo built its creative way of thinking design.

During the second chapter of the Élòj Kréyòl research in Martinique in 2018, dach&zephir discovered the particular history of the couteau CHIEN [trans. DOG knife] thank to M. Esson, an old bamboo broom craftsman who was invited to share his knowledge during one the education program he did with the primary school in Vauclin, Martinique.

Produced in Thiers (centre of France) for generations, legend said that this knife – punched with a dog logo on the blade – appeared in the West Indies as a wedding gift for a chef. Later, it will be used to prepare a very popular sauce called the “sauce chien” [trans dog sauce], a sauce made from sliced onions and tomatoes, which embellish local dishes. Today, the couteau CHIEN, whose production is sold almost exclusively in the French West Indies, is one of the essentials for any French Caribbean chef.

The frame of the couteau CHIEN has always been based on its potential for multiple uses until exhaustion of the blade. “[…] And when the handle would finally give way after long periods of work over many years, the father or grandfather would bring this knife back to life, by putting at the handle, which he wrapped with a piece of wood and rubber – from a car or bicycle – and often also from wires they pulled from electric cables to hold the handle. […] The knife was inexhaustible. Even when it became little more than a small thin blade, people used it, as we said, to ‘break the ice’, or to slaughter the animals, or it was used as a screwdriver. The dog knife was a tool used by the whole the family and for all occasions. It’s important, important”
This adaptation of the couteau CHIEN illustrates the natural agility of the Creole communities, that can be compared to the contra-industrial forms that exist in Cuba (Ernesto Oroza, Rimikibili, 2009). For dach&zephir, those creative forms of re-appropriation are the essence of a design process specific to the island and its history, and this “redesign” of the couteau CHIEN participate of their idea of a “creolisation design”.

The potential taxonomy of the couteau CHIEN shows an unknown history lost by the introduction of a more durable plastic handle that erased the tradition of customising the knife. This history was co-written between Thiers and the French West Indies; between an industrial production that reinvents itself through manual know-how, specific to Creole cultures.

This ongoing collection presents different typologies of knives, corresponding to the multiples uses that exist in the context of the island, by re-shaping its handle (and for some proposals, modifying the blade). Every handle has been re-created regarding daily scenes or uses that the duo watched or heard about, thanks to local materials and technics.

Following on from these reinventions, and based on a series of discussions with locals, the collection proposes to revive this tradition and imagine the future use of the couteau CHIEN, by creating new forms, new hybrids, new imaginary. Another way to think creative process.
An ode to creolisation.