I was recently contacted by a gallery in Arizona, here in the US, and they introduced me to the work of one of their artists, Dominic Benhura.
His work seems so fluid and dynamic, which is counter-intuituve as Dominic works in a hard stone called Springstone. Springstone is native of Zimbabwe, as is Dominic. He has five children, and I think you can see his tenderness toward them in his sculptures of children.
If you want to see more you can go here, and if you end up buying any of his work, you will be in the good company of Nelson Mandela, Halle Berry, and the United Nations.
The passed few months I have been watching, captivated, by the progress on the Biodiversity Garden in Cape Town. Built to demonstrate the diversity of plants and animals in the Cape region, and to promote good garden practices, the park has been created by numerous local artists and experts, using mosaics, structures, and of course, local flora.
Situated near the Green Point soccer stadium that you may have seen during the 2010 Soccer World Cup, the area has blossomed (um, excuse the pun, and yes, click on the images to see bigger).
My personal favourite is the scene that shows an owl, some rodents, three snakes and a honeybadger. A beautiful illustration of how everything is intertwined in life and nature. Here are some pics of the artwork in that exhibit.
I'm so glad Marijke, a garden designer who is working on the garden, is blogging about it. You can follow it all yourself, here.
PS: You may notice I've made some changes to the design of the blog (gosh, only took me 3 or 4 years!). Please let me know if anything is difficult to read.
Happy New Year everyone! Let's get 2011 off to a great start with an artist I've been admiring for a while, and am so happy to finally blog about on South of the Sahara.
Mary Sibande is an artist born and raised in Johannesburg, and her creation is Sophie, who has appeared in a series called Long Live the Dead Queen. To quote from The Fox is Black (I couldn't say it better myself),
"Inspired by the explorations of race, gender and sexuality in the work of American artists Kara Walker and Cindy Sherman, and London-based Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare, Mary cast her own body in fibreglass and silicone to create Sophie. She then painted her a ‘flat black,’ so that she stands out like a dark and static shadow … Sophie’s eyes are always closed as if in a ‘constant ecstasy of fantasy’ and it’s in her mind that her dress becomes a thing of voluminous Victorian splendour. ‘If she opened her eyes, it would be back to work – cleaning this, dusting that. Her dress would become an ordinary maid’s uniform,’ said Mary."
Mary's work critiques the stereotypical depictions of women, particularly black women, in South African society. In mixing the "uniform" that a typical domestic worker in South Africa wears, with the pomp and flourish of Victorian garb, Sophie brings up all sorts of questions about "slave" and "master", disempowerment and really how these things are all still hovering around a long, long time after they should have been gone.
The series were posted up as billboards around South Africa during the Soccer World Cup last year, and I wish I had seen them in person.
There was recently an open top bus tour (seen here and here) of Long Live the Dead Queen, and Mary Sibande herself travelled with the attendees to discuss the work. Jealous does not begin to describe my feelings about that!
The Little Girl is walking with her arms stretched out, dreaming that she could fly.
Looking up into the sky she stretches her arms out even wider, knowing that there must be a way to realize a dream as clear as this.
And then! A Dragonfly flying high above, truly soaring... he is able to walk on air, to floar effortlessly. He represents all that she has been dreaming.
The Little Girl stops, and gazes up into the sky and follows his every movement in amazement. Her fingertips seem to tingle as she imagines being able to do the same.
But wait! The Dragonfly swoops down to her, hovering in front of her... could he be asking her to fly with him? Could she have wings like he does?
Oh, she must be able to do this! She must see this dream become a reality! Without asking, she leaps into the air and tries to catch the Dragonfly, to grab him right out of his sky.
Read the rest of this lovely story here, or see it in person on the Promenade in Cape Town. Sculpture by Marieke Prinsloo-Rowe.
over here in Boston. The evening is warm, but there's a cool breeze blowing (thank goodness the heat and humidity of the past two days is gone!) and there is the sweet smell of flowers in the air. So let's have some fun!
First, let's get us a soundtrack:
Now, let's go shopping!!
If you're like me, your work schedule may have interfered with your blog reading schedule, so you probably missed the fun that was happening over at rikrak, where South Africa won the other world cup, the handmade world cup!
I'm not sure on how it all worked, if you'd like to know more just click here. What I do know that there were a bunch of South African etsy artists and crafters that participated. Let's take a look.
First off is Zoe Design, with these beautiful rings made from old teaspoons and other antique materials. I'd LOVE the first one.
These handbags are made by the same person, but you'll find them in another shop on etsy.
In Scootah's shop we find all the pillows and other sewn goodies on sale! I'm diggin' the ceramics...
koenigottokars has a lot of interesting stuff in her shop but these the wire heart and map envelopes spoke to me.
I absolutely love the work Kathy Mellor has in her store.
I've been a fan of Jezze's work for the longest time, and here's why:
I'm blown away by etsy newcomer, africhic. I've heard a lot about them at Style Guide Cape Town, so its nice to see what I can get my hands on from the States!
And lastly, and while speaking of jewelery here is the Lovely Ones' handiwork.
Now, let's take a breath! There were two collections that took part, so let's save the second one for tomorrow, or next week! Let's not tire ourselves out :)
