I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane

... but I will be back again.

Tomorrow I am off, on holiday, to... guess? That's right! South Africa! It's been nearly four years since I was last there, so I am looking forward to it. Enjoy your holidays, look after yourself and I will see you back here in the new year.




(Image by Jeremy, yes that Jeremy, as seen on The Wren's blog.)

Jurgen Schadeberg

Here's another great photographer: the Father of South African Photography.

Jurgen Schadeberg was born in Berlin but later moved to South Africa in 1951 and worked for Drum Magazine, where he took iconic photos and trained others to do the same. From the every day scenes of township jazz, to well known figures like Walter Sisulu (and my favourite, Miriam Makeba).











And, perhaps his most famous photograph: Nelson Mandela, free.



Schadeberg left South Africa when Drum was banned. He worked as a photojournalist in Europe and America, and taught at schools in London and New York. He periodically has exhibits of his work, and you can keep track of when and where those are here.



(Pic of Jurgen Schaderg and his wife Claudia)

Celebrate on the Rooftops

I am an avid reader of both Kim Gray's blog and Sarah's at Babazeka. Apparently the two of them are friends because I've been impressed with a wedding they both recently attended.



I was impressed for a few reasons. One, the bride had sewn her dress and her bridesmaids', and still had time to sew napkins from shwe shwe! These matched beautifully to the Wola Nani shwe shwe bowls from Babezeka.







That brings me to the second reason I was so impressed: it was a wedding in downtown Johannesburg! For my non-South African readers, Johannesburg is a typical old city in that it suffers from urban blight and is sadly not the happenin' downtown that you would imagine. The fact that this wedding was held in the city is fantastic, and that it was on the roof of a building is just lovely!





My congratulations to the bride and groom, and I say well done on a ballsy and beautiful approach!

(Read more and see more at Babazeka and Kim Gray)

Guerillas in Johannesburg

I recently became aware of a movement that is gaining worldwide momentum, called guerrilla gardening. People who find that their local government is neglecting public spaces like those along roads or in public parks and so on, take it upon themselves to garden there... sometimes going there in the middle of the night to plant something beautiful (using great phrases like "munition" for plants. Quite delightful).



I often read a blog by someone in London who is very involved in it, Richard Reynolds. I kind of remember (I find out about them reading nytimes.com one day, in this article) that he got started by gardening the flower beds in front of his apartment block, because it had been neglected. And then he got into trouble for doing it (and the saga continues, you can read more on his blog).



Anyway, I bring all this to your attention because he was recently in Johannesburg, passing on info about his tactics. He met with some local guerrilla gardeners, who showed him their work along the M1.



It seems that people are planting indigenous plants, and thinking about water usage. I know that when I lived there, local municipalities were quite good about keeping public areas attractive, so hopefully South African guerrilla gardeners will not have too much work to do. Richard managed to find somewhere to do a mission, however, while at the Hector Pieterson Museum. He found a little time to plant seeds in an earth strip that points to the spot where Hector was shot (for more info on Hector Pieterson, read this). He planted sunflowers, which I think is rather fitting considering how far we've come since Hector's time: sunflowers for the darkness which we've left behind but also because there are people who care enough to make the effort of taking care of space that they share with their neighbours.

Faithful

Faithful to Nature is a glorious resource of organic goodies... cosmetics, clothing, aromatherapy materials, food, and more. Sure, this isn't art and design but this is so fabulous I had to share it anyway.

The proprietors, Chris and Robyn, started the company after returning from abroad to South Africa, and wanted to create a place where people could get wholesome products for themselves, their families and pets that was good for them, and the earth.



My personal faves from the site? Hempton's Rosehip and Hemp Salt Scrub.



Traverno Soap Box Collection



Blue Sky Organics Black Table Olives



They deliver everywhere. There are tons of option, go get yours now...

(As first seen on the Babezeka blog)

Awards and Accolades

The Design Indaba bunch have done it again! The Brit Insurance Design Awards 2009 has nominated the 10 x 10 Project, in the architecture category. It is amongst other great projects from 2008 in many categories, including the Shepard Fairey Obama poster in the graphic design category...



... and the Aesop Stores and Branding by March Studios and Aesop (my apologies for my graphic design bias in choosing nominees to share!)



These will all be shown at the London Design Museum next year (great museum, if you're into design in any way, get yourself there).

Back to the 10 x 10 Project. The idea is to challenge the starchitects from around the globe to help build new homes for the millions of South Africans who call informal settlements home (in a six-metre square space that is usually available in the existing townships, and in a R50000 or 3300 pound budget). That means that someone who lives in a building made from corrugated iron sheeting, newspaper and other make-shift materials could have a home that is less vulnerable to fire (a large problem in informal settlements), wind resistant, and more heat/cooling efficient. Depending on the architect, some of these ideas were tackled.

One architect who met these environmental challenges, and more, is Luyanda Mpahlwa. His design is created by timber beams and filled in with sand bags. This creates walls that are less vulnerable to fire, keeps the wind out, keeps moisture out, and are probably bullet proof, too. It is also possible for the inhabitants to be able to build the two-storey homes themselves after a few days' training (pics below, a house in process of being built, and then the projected end result).





The other upside of this is that the architects ended up building a street of 10 houses each.

I read about the Project on the Creative Review's blog, which ran a great, and more detailed story here.

Sweet Moments

Wedding photography by Italy-based South African, Joanne Dunn.








And also shots from Italy. Wow.






Lucky Kim Gray gets to work with Joanne in January. Watch her blog for more. (All shots from Joanne's website.. hence the little black top right corner.)

Let the Good Times Roll

Sorry I was so quiet last week. I had some posts planned but then hit technical problems and didn't have the time to fix them. Thank goodness for the weekend! So here is something I've been wanting to share with you for a few days, at least...



Darkie Clothing was started by the idea of recycling. Themba Mngomezulu was inspired by his mother, who sold used clothes... he then did similar stuff himself, growing his Darkie brand into something quite huge, including 2 collections a year, made in the Darkie factory.

This season includes these looks:



... and you could always go retro, with some looks that originally debuted when the line first began.







But my favourite are the logo and wallpaper. Sweet.

The Weight of Things

Coming up in George soon (for those in South Africa), is an exhibit at 47 Market Street: artspace called Dorisduct. It features the work of sculpture Angus Taylor, and of Rina Stutzer, whose media are paint and pencil.

The artworks on show deal with, amongst other things, the animal as conveyer of meaning, and related notions such as baggage and the 'the weight of things'. Motivated by the title, both artists, Rina Stutzer and Angus Taylor give their individual and slightly satirical viewpoints on the Human Condition. Mediums include oil painting on cast metal sculptures.



Taylor has an interesting website (navigate at your peril!), and it starts with a statement: "… there seems, these days, to be some type of hierarchy in art where the seemingly conceptual genres (which may often be related to the emperor's clothes) are more highly rated than those works which are successful both in terms of concept and technical execution … The type of art that I appreciate enchants and fascinates me with the execution and the concept behind it. "

Find images of his work on the web is a bit tough, but I am intrigued by what I've found. Wish I could be there in person to check it out!





I am equally enamoured with Stutzer's work... she doesn't have her own website, but I found these.





So beautiful and inspiring.

Here is the official info from the gallery on the two:

Rina Stutzer

Rina was born in Vryheid, KwaZulu- Natal in 1976 and completed the BA (Fine Arts) and MA (Fine Arts) degrees at the University of Pretoria. She has been a part-time lecturer in painting and drawing in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Pretoria since 2000. Rina has won a number of awards, including the Bettie Cilliers-Barnard Bursary for excellence in painting, the New Signatures Art Competition: People's Choice and the first prize in the Ekurhuleni Fine Arts Award Competition (2007). She has participated in a number of group exhibitions since 2000 in Pretoria, Johannesburg, Stellenbosch and Potchefstroom, as well as the Soan Studio in London.

Angus Taylor

Angus Taylor (born 1970) is known in South Africa and abroad for his powerful, often large, works of sculpture, characterised by outstanding craftsmanship. Taylor is a graduate of the University of Pretoria which bestowed an Alumni Laureate on him in 2005.

In 1997, he founded his own undertaking, Dionysus Sculpture Works, where he casts his own and other sculptors' work. In addition to numerous solo and group shows (the last Solo exhibition was in October 2008 at the Everard Read gallery in Jhb), Taylor is predominantly involved in national and local government as well as private sector large scale commissions. Characteristically, Taylor currently incorporates large pieces of granite in his work, which he sources from locations such as Belfast.

I'd love to see this exhibit. If you're in that beautiful area, be sure to check it out, it's open between December 11 and January 15.