Creative Feel August 2016 by Creative Feel

SA R36,90 (incl. VAT) - August 2016

2 / Creative Feel / August 2016

Cover image:

DOKTER AND MISSES

Clothing: Marianne Fassler RESORT15. Photograph by Paul Samuels.

Dokter and Misses, this year’s featured designer

Creative Direction by Rich Mnisi and Ben Eagle. MUA by Marilyn du

at 100% Design South Africa, is known for

Preez. Model: Huawa Dauda @ ICE JHB. Assistant: Siphesihle Zondo

modernist pieces with strong construction

lines and bold colours that form graphic shapes

and spaces.

24 LEOPARD (F)ROCK

100% DESIGN SOUTH AFRICA 2016: 100 TIMES MORE EXCITEMENT

In her 40 years in the fashion industry, Marianne

The third annual 100% Design South Africa will take

Fassler (and her studio, Leopard Frock) has

place from 5 to 9 August 2016 at the Gallagher

become synonymous with innovation,

Convention Centre, alongside Decorex Joburg.

sustainability, incredible use of texture and

colour, and a hint of the obscure.

cover story

contents arts and culture

FUNCTIONAL ART HONOURED

AN INTENSITY OF LOOKING

Creative Feel spoke to the photographer behind this

effortlessly reflects on his career, mentors and his

month’s cover, Paul Samuels. Working with

2015 ImpACT Award win.

Marianne Fassler and the Leopard Frock creative

team, Samuels shot these images for Fassler’s

Determined designer Laurie Wiid van Heerden

RESORT15 line.

MULTIMEDIA WORKS SHINE AT BARCLAYS L’ATELIER 2016

This year’s Barclays L’Atelier has proven to be

TO CREATE HOMES WITH SOUL

one of the most strongly contested editions of

Nthabi Taukobong is the founding member

the annual contemporary art competition. With

and managing director of Ditau Interiors, an

a fresh pool of young African artists significantly

interior design consultation company based in

raising previous benchmarks, the 2016 winners

Johannesburg, South Africa that provides an

have shown the diverse range of talent present on

exclusive design service to a niche clientele.

the continent.

IT’S SHOWTIME!

In celebration of Women’s Month, Creative Feel

chatted to Hazel Feldman, the Founder and Director

of Showtime Management.

SAMRO FOUNDATION PICKS TWELVE TO BATTLE FOR THEIR SHARE OF HALF A MILLION

The rhythmic strum of a jazz guitar, the rich timbre

of the saxophone and trombone, the pulsating beat of

drums and the earthy tones of marimbas, the graceful

notes of the flute… These melodic sounds will form

Artlooks & Artlines is a monthly column

the soundtrack to the 2016 SAMRO Overseas

by Ismail Mahomed, CEO of the Market

Scholarships Competition, which has narrowed

Theatre Foundation.

down the search for the country’s best young

instrumentalists to twelve outstanding candidates.

lifestyle and entertainment 70 71

CD REVIEWS BOOK REVIEWS

contributors

ARTLOOKS & ARTLINES

contents 20

LITERARY LANDSCAPES

Literary Landscapes is a monthly column written

by Indra Wussow, a writer, translator and director of

the Sylt Foundation.

DIVAS OF KOFIFI

Sophiatown, or Sof’town or Kofifi, in the suburbs of

Johannesburg, was one of the last places in the city

where people of any race could live or do business

BUSINESS & ARTS

together. It became known for its bohemian

Business & Arts is a monthly column by

lifestyle and vibrant music scene.

Michelle Constant, CEO of Business and Arts

STANDARD BANK JOY OF JAZZ: STAR STUDDED GLOBAL LINE-UP

South Africa (BASA).

Joy of Jazz, now in its 19th year, reinforces its status

as South Africa’s foremost jazz festival, and one of

the best on the African continent.

Creative Feel / August 2016 / 9

WIN A TRIP FOR TWO TO FRANCE!

Creative Feel

Win a trip for two to experience the life and art of Henri Matisse, from the North to the South of France!

AIR

RIES,

Return flights for two courtesy of Air France.

MERGING

N AN

W AY.

www.creativefeel.c o.za

Three nights in the North of France: experience art, history and indulge in the best that French culture has to offer.

Creative Feel

E -

T FA I R ES,

07016

519004

H e n ri Ma tis se

NK STANDARD BA RG GALLERY JOBU 2016 13 JULY - 17 SEP

FINDING NEW ART SPACES

FOR A NEW GENERATION:

TAF 2016

AIR FRANCE

THE TRANSPORTS WORK PRECIOUS ART

ISS WALTER BATT NTER” AN PAI “THE BUSHM SEUM WITS ART MU OBER 5 JULY - 9 OCT

771607

VAT) - July 2016 SA R36,90 (incl.

JULY 2016

07016 519004

JULY 2016

- July 2016

www.creativefe el.co.za (incl. VAT)

TS IN A N BLE WA Y.

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771607

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ALLERI

Two nights in the South of France: explore Matisse’s home city of Nice and experience the beauty of this artistic location on the French Riviera.

How to enter: WE WANT TO SEE YOU GET CREATIVE! Take a picture of yourself or an object or a place with a ‘French flair’. Make sure that the #explorecreativefrance lapel badge and a copy of Creative Feel’s July, August, September or October issue is visible somewhere – that’s the only limit. Post your pic to your favourite social media platform with the hashtag #explorecreativefrance and make sure that you follow/like Creative Feel, Atout France and Air France. Be sure to share your picture – and tag Creative Feel, Atout France and Air France – the more likes or shares

Highlights of this prize include:

your picture receives, the higher your chance of winning!

A tour of the Musée départemental Matisse, Le Cateau-Cambrésis in the North of France, which holds an extraordinary 170 Matisse works, as well as 65 paintings by Auguste Herbin, given by the artist; paintings by Geneviève Claisse, relative and student of Herbin; elements of the Tériade collection of artists’ books and 30 photographs from the Henri CartierBresson collection. A visit to the Delville Woods memorial and the WWI battlefields in the North of France.

(Entrants that don’t follow Creative Feel, Atout France and Air France won’t be considered).

Two night’s accommodation (bed and breakfast) at the Hotel Beau Rivage, a boutique hotel with a contemporary design in the Old Town of Nice; and tour of Musée Matisse de Nice (in Nice, the South of France, where Matisse lived from 1917 to 1954), which holds one of the world’s largest collections of Matisse artworks, tracing his artistic beginnings and his evolution through his last works. The museum houses 68 paintings and gouaches, 236 drawings, 218 prints, 95 photos, 57 sculptures and 14 books illustrated by Matisse, 187 objects that belonged to the painter, and prints, tapestries, ceramics, stained glass and documents. You will also have the chance to experience a wonderful dinner at the restaurant of South African Michelin star Chef Jan Hendrik.

FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Creative Feel:

Atout France South Africa:

Air France South Africa:

Creative Feel

@CreativeFeel

@ZA_FranceFR

@AirFranceZA

@francetourismza

@airfrance

@creative_feel

Rendez-vous en France

Stay up to date with competition details on www.creativefeel.co.za

Air France

Powerful & Glamorous

hat joy to put an issue like this current one together – celebrating Women’s Month and South African design at the same time – pure bliss. As so frequently happens, this issue created its own momentum. We started off by

looking at 100% Design South Africa, a high-end showcase of the most inspirational

designs and designers, which runs alongside Decorex Johannesburg. We collaborated for our own Creative Feel stand at the show with this year’s featured designer, Dokter and Misses, a wonderful and unique, Johannesburg-based, multi-disciplinary product design company. We love their designs, an afro-modernist approach with strong construction lines and bold use of colour. Always on the lookout for the ‘perfect’ cover, we came across this wonderful photograph taken by Paul Samuels for Marianne Fassler’s RESORT15 range and just could not resist using it. We had interviewed the iconinc fasion designer about her latest show and the cover image just put it all into context: ‘Power women & the arts’. We had fun interviewing her and visiting her studio in Saxonwold, a truly passionate designer and design team. The only real hardship was to resist the temptation to take my credit card out and to just splurge on even one of her beautiful garments.

Panorama of Paris as seen from the Eiffel Tower as full 360-degree view (river flowing from north-east to south-west, right to left)

Rosie Katz, Bongani Tembe, Ambassador Barbier and Monica Newton

Continuing with our French theme, on Bastille Day, Ambassador of France to South Africa, Elisabeth Barbier, bestowed the award of ‘Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres’ on Ms Monica Newton and Ms Rosie Katz and ‘Officier des Arts et des Lettres’ upon Mr Bongani Thembe. The Order of the Arts and Letters was established in 1957 and rewards those who have helped develop the arts. During the ceremony, Ambassador Barbier said, ‘Thanks to the recipients’ vision and efforts, the reciprocal France-South African Seasons 2012/2013 were a huge artistic achievement.’ Congratulations! And there is of course also a reminder not to miss out and enter #explorecreativefrance, our very own exclusive Creative Feel competition that might take you to France and could show you Matisse’s France. Get your copy of Creative Feel and the Matisse pink badge and enter. All further details are on our print ad and on www.creativefeel.co.za. Enter now, you never know, you might find yourself flying in style to France and having the time of your life. After all, Paris is still the number one tourist destination in the world. For me, personally, it is still the best city to visit with places like the Louvre, Centre Georges Pompidou, Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower and of course Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral and Montmartre with the Basilica of the Sacré Cœur. Good luck Lore

We loved this!

PUBLISHER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Lore Watterson; lore@desklink.co.za COPUBLISHER & PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Chris Watterson; chris@desklink.co.za DEPUTY EDITOR Tamaryn Greer; tammy@desklink.co.za EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Francesca Matthys DIGITAL CONTENT CURATOR Abigail Phiri ADDITIONAL EDITORIAL CONTENT: Ismail Mahomed Michelle Constant Indra Wussow SALES & MARKETING sales@desklink.co.za sales@creativefeel.co.za SALES & MARKETING COORDINATOR Oupa Sibeko; oupa@desklink.co.za DESIGN Leigh Forrest; leigh@desklink.co.za DISPATCH Khumbulani Dube SUBSCRIPTION & CIRCULATION subs@creativefeel.co.za Published by DeskLink™ Media PO Box 3670, Randburg, 2125 Tel: 011 787 0252 Fax: 011 787 8204 www.creativefeel.co.za www.desklink.co.za PRINTING ColorPress (Pty) Ltd © Copyright DeskLink™ Media The opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent the views of the publisher.

‘For 31 years the Ardmore artists and I have toiled away in KwaZulu-Natal, creating fanciful ceramics that have provided an income to feed many a family. Every year we have perfected our skills, challenged ourselves and taken our creativity to greater heights. The fact that British wallpaper manufacturers, Cole and Son discovered and chose our South African designs and artistry to place on their 2017 range of wallpaper is an honour and we pride ourselves on being the first African designers to have achieved such a prestigious accolade,’ says Ardmore Founder, Fee Halsted.

14 / Creative Feel / August 2016

While every last effort has been made to check that the information in this book is correct at the time of going to press, the publisher, author and their agents will not be held liable for any damages incurred through any inaccuracies.

Luxury, art, tranquillity and elegance

The beautifully serene Casta Diva Boutique Hotel, on the northern slopes of the Magaliesberg Mountain in Pretoria, is a place to escape the madness of the every-day busy world. The Magaliesberg mountain range has been declared a World Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO. The announcement was made in Paris by the International Coordinating Council of the Programme on Man and the Biosphere in June 2015 and the Magaliesberg now joins The World Network of Biosphere Reserves. As Casta Diva is situated on this magnificent mountain range, it is the perfect getaway for the bird-watching tourist. Almost half the total bird species of Southern Africa can be spotted on this mountain range. The Casta Diva Boutique Hotel also offers her guests an on-site restaurant where they can enjoy a culinary experience second to none. Charisma Restaurant offers à la carte menus for breakfast, lunch and dinner and often also hosts classical concerts. The cultural support does not stop there, as they also have an on-site intimate theatre and art gallery – Casta Diva’s Vissi d’Arte. Here they host up-and-coming, local talent at no cost. The non-profit venue often hosts theatrical productions and musical event from classical to jazz. Keep your eye on their Facebook page to stay updated. Visit their website at www.castadiva.co.za and reserve a room now to spoil yourself to a retreat in the city. Casta Diva, the place to relax and just… be. CF

Accessory Design at House of Cinnamon Frances Edwards is the founder of South African luxury accessories brand, House of Cinnamon. Based in Johannesburg, she creates and designs exclusive handcrafted products. CREATIVE FEEL: When did you first realise your passion for fashion design? FRANCES EDWARDS: I think clothing and shoes have always fascinated me. I have very fond memories of spending afternoons with my older sister, trying on items from my mother’s eclectic, but stylish wardrobe. She had a pair of especially desirable, knee-high boots and eye-catching, totteringly high, high-heels in fine leathers. It wasn’t a huge collection of clothes, but rather minimal and idiosyncratic, with select pieces expressing her unique flair. CF: Where does the name House of Cinnamon come from? FE: Cinnamon has always been and still is my favourite spice. It evokes richness, history and versatility. I’d like to think that this reflects what a pair of Cinnamons should be: precious, highly coveted, embedded in a timeless story… CF: And what do you see for the future of South African fashion design? FE: I’d like to see increased prominence given to products that have been created and crafted under the ‘proudly South African’ label, more support offered to small businesses that create jobs, and higher visibility for designers trying to find their niche in the tough fashion arena. CF

Making music together.

AN INTERNATIONAL ODYSSEY for upcoming orchestral talent Three of South Africa’s brightest young talents recently embarked on an epic journey to the Netherlands.

n these times of social and economic uncertainty, the creative arts continue to prove vital to the cause of enriching the human spirit. Our country has a time-tested reputation as fertile ground for musical talent and a group

of passionate performers proved it, once again, when they were selected to participate in a week-long cultural exchange to Amsterdam in May 2016, as part of an initiative between the globally-renowned Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (RCO) in Amsterdam, the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra and the South African National Youth Orchestra. Keamogetswe Magau (22, a violinist from Bloemfontein), Samantha van Gysen (Durrant) (21, a violinist from Cape Town) and Siyolise Nyondo (22, a double bassist from Bloemfontein) were chosen for the programme by two members of the RCO, Arndt Auhagen and Henk Rubingh, who came to South Africa to present two ‘What It Takes’ courses (comprising masterclasses and workshops) to members of the SA National Youth Orchestra. The initiative’s aim is to provide the budding musicians with real-world experience at the highest possible level while providing expert tutelage, thereby giving the participants a foundation upon which they can begin to build their own careers. This momentous trip was sponsored by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and the Royal Embassy of the Netherlands. ‘This is a fantastic learning opportunity for our young musicians. The great thing about this exchange programme is that these artists will return to South Africa and share their enhanced skills with their fellow students,’ said Bongani Tembe, co-founder of this international skills transfer programme. While there, the trio benefited from the wisdom and experience of the RCO, gaining invaluable theoretical and practical knowledge from a number of classes and rehearsals, with the journey’s greatest highlight being the opportunity to perform in concert at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.

Keamogetswe Magau. PHOTO Teboho Motsatse

Samantha van Gysen (Durrant). PHOTO Hannes Thiart Magau was deeply moved by the kind and generous nature of the veteran players who surrounded her, ‘The lessons I received were filled with so much precious knowledge and it’s really interesting to see how other people experience my playing. Caroline Strumphler told me, “You have to believe in what you are saying. No-one will believe it if you don’t believe it. Do not be so humble in your playing.” From then on, I understood that the violin is just an extension of myself and I have to learn how to communicate efficiently, elegantly and beautifully with it. ‘From Arndt Auhagen I learnt how important it is to relax and remember that everything isn’t as fast as you think it is. You actually have more time than you think. Arndt The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, based in

has such a kind, beautiful heart and he conveys that in his

Amsterdam, is a symphony orchestra that gives orchestral

playing.’ Her hours among the RCO players sparked a great

concerts of the highest calibre in the world’s leading concert

deal of personal growth, which she feels will serve her well

halls under the direction of globally recognised conductors.

in the years to come.

Sharing what she gained from the journey, Van Gysen

The life of an orchestral musician is by no means an

(Durrant) enthused, ‘In such a short time, we had four

easy one and the time abroad led to an epiphany of sorts

masterclasses with some of the most musically fascinating

for Nyondo. ‘Amsterdam made me realise that I should take

and humorous players of the RCO. People who not only

myself more seriously and that I have all the tools to be a

improved us, but emphasised the enjoyment factor and

great bass player. It is not enough to just be good, anyone

love for the music we were playing. My fondest memory

can be good. I need to stand out!’

was the evening we spent at the home of Henk Rubingh and

At the programme’s conclusion, Michael Klier, education

his wife, Marijn. Charming us with good food, music and

coordinator of the RCO, expressed pleasure at the time spent

conversation; I was in awe that the people I had watched on

with the visitors. ‘These three ladies made a big impression

YouTube for so many years were now entertaining me with

on all of us,’ he said. With such advice and praise from

their company. What a surreal evening indeed!’

contemporaries of this calibre, there can be little doubt that these prodigies are destined for success. CF

Siyolisa Nyondo. PHOTO Gallo Images Creative Feel / August 2016 / 19

CEO of the Market Theatre Foundation, Ismail Mahomed, considers his time at the National Arts Festival while also looking forward to his new role at the Market Theatre.

he National Arts Festival in Grahamstown has

spirits soar above us every day. It is the spirits of these

been acclaimed by several arts academics and arts

leaders and pioneers which I could filter into my DNA. It

specialists, and has often been referred to as a

gave me the strength to breathe, to stay alive, to fight – and

vibrant barometer through which artists are able

to do so with courage and integrity.

to articulate the political and social mood of the country. For

It was their spirit that kept me awake at night and woke

eight glorious years, I’ve directed this iconic South African

me up in the morning. It was their spirit that was the wind

cultural event.

that blew past me every day, whispering gently to notice

One of the great joys of having been the Artistic Director

the greatness that surrounded me. They pointed me in the

of the National Arts Festival for the past eight years, was

direction of new living giants like Thembi Mtshali, Mikhail

that I could live in multiple universes and multiple tenses all

Subotzky, Yvette Hardie, Lara Foot, Sibongile Khumalo,

at the same time; and I didn’t have to carry a sense of guilt

Afrika Mkhize, Khayelihle Dom Gumede, Gregory Maqoma

about not wanting to step out of any of them.

and thousands more whose words, works and wisdom

I was inspired everyday by artists who overcame the barriers of inadequate arts policy. I was constantly

inspired me every day. They pushed me to ask myself a thousand difficult

impressed by how they created dynamic work from hardly

questions. They are the people whose hand held mine as I

any resources. I marvelled at how they engaged and

tried to walk with a younger generation to sculpt new roads.

challenged their spaces and their societies. I lived and

And on each of the new roads that we carved, we never lost

worked among a generation of artists for whom the present

sight of paying homage to the footsteps of those who made

tense, with all its conflicts, was nothing that they wanted to

their mark in the sands before us.

sweep under the carpet.

As the Artistic Director of the Festival, I’ve never walked

They were bold and courageous. They were inventive and

alone but more-so, I’ve never ever felt forced to carry the

experimental. This was a generation that was not going to be

burden alone. I’ve had my load carried many times by the

held captive by historical and geographical barriers. This was

giants on whose shoulders I could stand, and look beyond

a generation for whom digital media had blurred the lines.

the horizon to what new possibilities tomorrow will bring.

For them, the global became local and they were passionate

These were giants with warm hearts and open arms. It is

about making their local become global. They kept me on my

through their lenses that I found new visions. It is through

toes. For that I am incredibly grateful because they filled me

their generosity that I learnt humility. It is through their

with hope to re-envision a more optimistic future, but they

courage that I learnt fearlessness.

also allowed me to comfortably reflect on the past. I could bask in the past but never lose sight of critical

As an Artistic Director of one of the most important arts festivals on the African continent, I could not live with fear. I

reflection. I could immerse myself in those glorious

was prepared to take risks into the unknown. I was prepared

moments of history, and commune directly with the men

to invest where others shied away. Together with a dynamic

and women whose human spirit will be celebrated forever…

team with whom I worked, we were prepared to envision

Michael Masote, Bram Fischer, Dulcie September and many

and re-envision. We were prepared to go back to the drawing

more whose stories our artists have told on our stages.

board a hundred times. We were prepared to think just

This year, I’ve watched them recreate the lives of Bessie Head, Ruth First, Bheki Mseleku and many more whose

20 / Creative Feel / August 2016

beyond yesterday and today. There are no failures to mope about or regret. There are only lessons learnt.

National Arts Festival. PHOTO John Hogg

Lessons learnt in the arts sector make you wiser. If need

I took the baton from Lynette Marais, who handed it to

be, it gives you the fuel to be louder. It will sometimes land

me with grace; and then stood on the side-lines to cheer

you into deep trouble. You’ll be labelled a loud mouth, a foul

me on. Now after running the race, I too am ready to hand

mouth, a maverick and a lot more but those labels will be

over the baton to the next runner. This is not an ordinary

tagged behind your back. Those labels are never tagged in

relay that Lynette and I have run. This is not a race that

front of you. About those who tag those labels on your back

you run to win. This is an arena where the real runners and

you never have to worry. They are irrelevant and they’re

referees must always be the artists!

always on the wrong side of history. The arts is not an arena for cowards. The arts is a

Having run that relay, I am now at the threshold of entering a new race. I stand at the doors of the Market Theatre – another

playground for heroes and pioneers. It is here where those

historic and iconic institution. I embrace the vision that was

who can stand up to power do so with their poetry, music,

carved out by its founders as much as I embrace the vision that

dance, images, voices, instruments and bodies. The arts is a

a new generation that will map out on its stages. The names

playground, a boardroom and a temple. It is here where you

of Barney Simon, John Kani and Mannie Manim are boldly

can let your dreams get wings and fly. It is here where you

ensconced in its walls. It is my responsibility to walk the new

can wag your index finger, show the thumbs up or raise your

roads with its current staff and council so that in years to

middle finger when you need to.

come we will hear the echo of a new generation of artists also

For the past eight years, I’ve lived amongst giants. They were amongst the audiences, arts media, funders,

resonate from its walls alongside these iconic names. It is this new generation who must be the window

technicians, stage hands, cleaners and artists. This year’s

through which we look out at the world. They are our lenses.

Festival was my last dance. It was my swan-song. It was my

They are our ears. They are our heartbeats. We must dance to

closing refrain. I am grateful that I was blessed to be able to

the pulse of their rhythm if we want to stay emotionally and

run this race.

intellectually alive. CF

Creative Feel / August 2016 / 21

Literary Landscapes is a monthly column by Indra Wussow, a writer, translator and director of the Sylt Foundation.

nce in a while there is the incredibly amazing

communists. People experienced a free market, were

opportunity to experience how literary landscapes

able to make business and Poland became a flourishing

are created. Sometimes they are hidden treasures

country, and has remained so even during the most recent

that are artistically alienated and hardly ever

economic crisis.

recognised as the departure point of a poem. Sometimes they

In October 2016, the shift from the neoliberal and pro-

are real events and landscapes that play such an important

European government to the right wing, anti-European and

role that they become one of the main characters of a novel.

pro-Catholic one, took place. Half of the people allowed to

Poland is the landscape of extreme historical drama,

vote seemed already tired of the democratic system that

the landscape of the major European upheavals in the 20th

had been fought for so hard and refused to vote. Voters from

century. Partition, a brief independence from 1918 to 1939

small towns and villages, unable to find themselves in the

and occupations by the two major powers, Germany and the

new economic reality, voted for those who promised them a

Soviet Union, mark Poland’s traumatic historical experience.

step back to the past: more help from the government and

This included the displacement of millions of Poles due to

better social aid to the poor population that was left behind.

new borders, designed by the winning powers of World War

PiS party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość means ‘Law and Justice’)

II. As historian Timothy Snyder wrote, Poland became the

won only 37,58% of the votes – but it was enough to win the

‘bloodlands’ of a Europe between Hitler and Stalin. The real

majority in parliament. Those voting for the PiS, dream of

post war period in Poland only ended after the collapse of

a Poland for the Polish that should be free of all ‘modernist’

the Soviet Union.

threats of our times.

The consequences for Poland were devastating, more

In May, I spent two weeks on a research trip with Chilean

than six million Poles lost their lives. Most of them civilians

writer, Enrique Winter to gather information about both of

that had been deported, killed and wasted. The Red Army

our family’s histories, of which a crucial part happened in

liberated the country from its German occupiers but went

Poland, namely in Lodz and Warsaw. It was a trip to the heart

on killing and deporting those who could challenge their

of a changing country and its diverse history.

power. Millions of Poles from the eastern parts of Poland

Today, Lodz is a rather bleak city facing unemployment

were settled to the very west as the Soviet Union claimed the

and decay. It once was the industrial motor of Poland for

eastern parts for itself and offered Poland the eastern part of

a long time, inextricably linked to the textile industry.

the former German realm for its inhabitants. Victor’s justice

There are still the extraordinarily sumptuous mansions of

displaced millions of people in central Europe and resulted

the former industrialists, the old red brick factories and

in a completely new landscape and, in a creation of countries

spinning mills that are being transformed into apartments or

based on nationality rather than citizenship, irretrievably

cultural institutions. Before the German occupation in 1939,

changed the concepts of the ‘old’ Europe with their multi-

Lodz was a multi-ethnic city often called the ‘City of Four

ethnic societies.

Cultures’, namely Polish, Jewish, Russian and German people

The idea of a nation living in its own territory became the driving political force in many European countries and

living and working together. Nothing of the old Lodz is left apart from some cultural

has finally lead some of the countries back on a right-wing

institutions that take up the idea of cultural pluralism and

track today.

diversity. The most important Polish film school is based

After 1989, Poland succeeded in transforming from

in Lodz and many famous filmmakers have studied there.

socialism to liberalism. A peaceful transformation without

Coming from South Africa and Germany, it is striking how

civil war, without politically oppressing the former

homogenous the Polish population is, how few foreigners

22 / Creative Feel / August 2016

Central market in Warsaw you meet. The complete opposite of the city that Enrique’s relatives had experienced before the war. My grandmother came from Riga in 1939 and spent five years in Lodz after being resettled in Hitler’s mad plan to offer Lebensraum for the Germans in Eastern Europe. By then, the old Lodz was already destroyed by its Nazi occupiers, who deported and killed the Jewish and Polish population. One cannot imagine how Enrique’s German family, having lived together with their neighbours in Lodz for centuries, must have felt during this tragic time. My grandmother never felt at home and she could hardly forget that the flat that she was offered had belonged to a Jewish librarian who had been forced into the infamous Ghetto of Lodz. My mother was born in Lodz shortly before the family fled from the rapidly advancing Red Army in 1945. Lodz, an intermediate so deeply linked to German aggression and guilt, has always been a cruel memory for my family. The

(from left to right) Polish poet Marta Eloy Cichocka, Polish composer and musician Marcin Olés, Indra Wussow and Enrique Winter Main shopping street in Lodz

first displacement before the final destination – a tiny, narrowminded village in Westfalia, where my grandmother with her cosmopolitan attitude never felt at home. Enrique’s father married a Polish girl and, with his brother’s family, they fled to Salzburg in 1945 and emigrated to Santiago de Chile in 1948. A home lost, a chapter closed and reopened far away, under completely different circumstances, in a very foreign place. All of the traumatic layers of history and war map a country and its family’s psychologies, long after the war and post-war period; the psychologies of those families who remained in Poland and of those who left it behind. In the next Literary Landscapes I will speak more about how Polish intellectuals deal with the new government and the country’s shift to the right; and how writers and artists respond to this challenge. CF

Creative Feel / August 2016 / 23

Business & Arts is a monthly column by Michelle Constant, CEO of Business and Arts South Africa (BASA).

recent series of workshops that our entire

The concept of space is also an important one in the scaling

team took part in, opened some new processes

process. Space as geography of course, but there is also space

and thoughts for us around organisational

for thinking. One of the questions we asked ourselves was

management. The challenges that we were dealing

whether we gave ourselves permission to procrastinate. Of

with were diverse – here was an organisation that is scaling

course, most people within the creative sector understand

rapidly on different programmes. The metaphor that best

that procrastination is often the only way we are able to

describes our challenges is the one of our fridge. For nearly

get through everything that is put on our table, but this is a

20 years, we have been using a bar fridge in our kitchen.

different procrastination – not the one that is considered a

Over the years, as the team grew, we found it more and more

slur or slight. This is not the procrastination that is the thief

difficult to pack our daily lunches in the fridge. Sometimes

of time. This is the procrastination that offers time, space to

the door refused to close, sometimes one of us had to leave

think, to strategise, to engage with off-centre ideas. This is the

our food on the counter, and hope it didn’t go off. Milk and

procrastinator that says, ‘I don’t have to answer every email

cold water always had pride of place (of course) but even these

that comes to my desktop today,’ that says, ‘a walk around the

products started to be squeezed, again making it difficult

block may offer greater benefits.’

to get that door closed. And a fridge without a closed door is really just a cupboard, a series of badly designed shelves.

The requirement of time, space and belief to create good results is highlighted by the Walter Battiss

“Whilst we are always told that with one door closing another opens, the converse is also true” Indeed, apart from the fact that it was a fridge, it really was

exhibition at the Wits Art Museum, which was launched

just one hot mess. And so we finally decided it was time to get

to great fanfare, and a massive turn-out – surprising as

a larger fridge. This came with the need to expand the office

Joburg Winter often plays havoc with even the best of

space too. Ok, so it’s not a Smeg, but wow, that new fridge

guest lists. The exhibition is the outcome of over 30 years

is wonderful. Suddenly everybody’s meals fit. Suddenly our

of collection by arts champion and philanthropist Jack

food comes out cold (but not frozen because it was squashed

Ginsberg, and features over 700 of the artist’s works.

next to the deep freeze). It was this process that needed to

Ginsberg, who received the Arts Champion Award from

happen in the organisation – a long look at structures, staff,

BASA a few years back, demonstrates the power of the

skills and strategy – the four S’es – and how they worked

individual to make change, slowly, patiently, surely and

with one another, and alongside one another, appropriately.

with a vision for the future. It’s a phenomenal visual feast,

Even more so was the long hard look at what needed to be

curated by the savvy Warren Siebrits, one that requires

eliminated, automated and delegated. Whilst we are always

time (again) for viewing. If one goes back to the workshop

told that with one door closing another opens, the converse is

learnings that suggest belief, attitude, emotion, and

also true. With every door you open, another one will need to

behaviour lead to results, then let’s go back to the time

close to make the space – much like those meals in the fridge.

and space required to ensure that the right beliefs lead to

At this point, ‘No’ becomes a positive activity, not a negative.

even better results. CF

24 / Creative Feel / August 2016

In her 40 years in the fashion industry, Marianne Fassler (and her studio, Leopard Frock) has become synonymous with innovation, sustainability, incredible use of texture and colour, and a hint of the obscure.

26 / Creative Feel / August 2016

arianne Fassler’s journey into fashion went via a Fine Art degree at the University of Witwatersrand. ‘My mother is a painter but I found it frustrating to work on a canvas,’

says Fassler. ‘After completing my BA (Hons) degree at Wits I became interested in fashion design, there were no schools that taught fashion, certainly not in Johannesburg really, but my mother found me a Hungarian woman who was running classical couture workshops. That’s where I started and although I can only really see my career and its trajectory in retrospect, when you look at it now, the kind of aesthetic and the kind of ethic that we work by is very traceable from the very start. We’ve got amazing documentation, in fact, we’re busy with huge alterations at Leopard Frock, which will include a space to house our archive. The more the clothes change, the more they stay the same – without being the same, but they still have the same narrative. I mean, I no longer – and I haven’t for many years – cut the patterns or do anything like that because we’re way too busy… We started in 1976 and still have clients that we’ve had from then… We’re busy now with a granddaughter who is getting married, but we also made the granny’s dress for her son’s Barmitzva when he was 14 and he is now the father of the child. So we can tell these kinds of stories but, of course, we wouldn’t be in business if we didn’t have lots of new clients as well. ‘What is interesting for me [about our role in fashion], is finding ways to work in different mediums creatively. We engineer the fabrics and we never throw any of our scraps away; we do all sorts of things. It’s not making art, but it’s not just making a dress either, it’s not just clothes. People find them collectible: they’re certainly not cheap, they are labour intensive and are made by skilled artisans. We reuse our fabrics, we’ll make a jacket out of all the leftovers – that’s very much in our handwriting. We even repurpose the scraps of cotton that lie on the floor at the end of every day. It’s almost like sculpting, I guess, and that’s what people like. I’m not particularly interested in fashion... I don’t need to own it, I don’t need to look at Fashion TV, it’s more like, “what can I say with what I make.” ‘So, in 1990 I moved out of Hyde Park Corner where I was for a long time and came here [to Saxonwold, where Leopard Frock is currently situated] because the workshop was always here. People love coming to Leopard Frock, to see the studio and to see the clothes. With the move, we changed our name. There are lots of examples of places named “Leopard Rock”, there are game parks and restaurants all over Africa. So I thought, “let’s make it Leopard Frock,” it’s humorous.’

Creative Feel / August 2016 / 27

Marianne Fassler collection at 2016 Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Joburg. PHOTOS Simon Deiner / SDR Photo

28 / Creative Feel / August 2016

Speaking about her current line, Fassler says, ‘This year we could feel quite strongly that there is a return to the 1980s and this has proved to be right, because right now there’s a great sense of “hippie” coming back. I don’t like to look back but we started thinking: “we haven’t worked in velvet. We’d like to have some velvets, we’d like to have some lace, and we’d like to have some surface interest.” Colour is very important for us because our clients love colour. This range is a little bit more toned down than usual and we used a lot of ink blues, Berber blues and things like that. I received some very nice reviews, in particular my own daughter said to me, “You know what? It’s so interesting because the collection contained just about everything you had done in your life but just different.” There was a familiarity and yet it was fresh. ‘For me, creating a collection is very collaborative in that everybody here has a say in what we’re going to show. I’m like the ultimate art director but I don’t design the whole collection in one go. We’ll have a concept there and then a concept here and perhaps one there,’ Fassler maps out the creative team’s thinking process on a piece of paper, showing how concepts merge and develop to create a line, or are left behind to be explored further in the next collection. ‘There are remnants of a previous collection coming through and then fresh ideas, reinterpreting some new things. It’s very much a collaboration: we have meetings, my whole team (including my machinists) sits down and we talk about it, “what do you think?” and that’s how it happens. Sometimes we start with just a piece of material.’ Fassler’s love of art plays an important role both in her personal life and in her work. ‘We’ve got great art between my husband and I, we’re collectors. We buy video works, performance pieces, and photography. But its more also, because I’m very involved in the art world, I’m very involved with Friends of the Joburg Art Gallery, I know many artists, I go to openings, I see art – when I travel, that’s what I go and do. I’m lucky enough to have been able, over many years, to collect as well. And I also instil that kind of culture in my studio, if you come here for mentorship, you go and see exhibitions, you go to galleries, you give me feedback, you read my books. So it’s very important that people understand that really good fashion doesn’t come out of the internet or from a magazine, it comes through things happening around you that you respond to and even subcultures.’ And of course, the next line is already in the works and being conceptualised, with special attention paid to the authenticity of the brand and of course, constantly innovating: ‘the one thing that you cannot do in fashion is stagnate or do the same thing, it becomes very boring for me and for my client.’ CF

Creative Feel / August 2016 / 29

AN INTENSITY OF

Clothing: Marianne Fassler RESORT15. Photograph by Paul Samuels. Creative Direction by Rich Mnisi and Ben Eagle. MUA by Marilyn du Preez. Model: Huawa Dauda @ ICE JHB. Assistant: Zondo 30 / CreativeSiphesihle Feel / August 2016

Creative Feel spoke to the photographer behind this month’s cover, Paul Samuels. Working with Marianne Fassler and the Leopard Frock creative team, Samuels shot these images for Fassler’s RESORT15 line. Samuels is an award-winning photographer whose Edenvale series has been exhibited worldwide.

ince completing his Fine Arts degree in 2012, Paul Samuels has quickly built up an extensive and impressive portfolio of works, ranging from exquisite (and sometimes dark) to creative advertising campaigns and captivating fashion shots. Towards the end of his studies, Samuels was awarded the Tierney

Fellowship, joining a world-wide elite group of photographers recognised for their exceptional talent, and given the means to develop further. In South Africa, the awarding of the fellowship ‘was a collaboration between Wits and Michaelis School of Fine Art and Market Photo Workshop. We would get together and discuss work, have huge crit sessions for a couple of days; we’d do it in Johannesburg and in Cape Town. It was really interesting because it was cool to see the other people that have gotten the same award and we would discuss our work.’ As a result, his Edenvale series, which he was working on at the time of the award, has travelled the world. ‘It’s had quite a few exhibitions, right now it is at the Jury Photo Festival in the UK; Switzerland for Regeneration 3; Mexican Photo Festival; and the Bamako Bienalle in Mali, which is the biggest photographic exhibition in Africa.’

Creative Feel / August 2016 / 31

The Edenvale series consists of a series of portraits of

‘It’s kind of this desire to tell a story and I think

regular people from Samuels’ home of Edenvale, Johannesburg.

sometimes it’s a desire to tell my own story. Images

Looking through a documentary eye, akin to that of acclaimed

transcend language and I think that’s quite an important

photographer Pieter Hugo, Samuels captures intimate

thing. It’s quite interesting, it’s like those things start to tell

moments in a place so obviously South African, yet completely

a story about South Africa, growing up here, being white or

relatable worldwide. ‘I mean, a lot of those guys that I grew up

being middle class. Trying to tell that story, I guess.’

with I know quite intimately. So I’m not coming as an outsider,

Samuels’ career has been filled with and fuelled by

I’m an insider in that environment. I know the experiences

important role models and mentors. ‘I studied under Jo

that we’ve had and there’s some sort of mutual ground that we

Ractlliffe, an incredible South African photographer,

work on. I think it allows me a certain kind of access that a lot

she still mentors me now,’ he says. ‘Chris [Saunders] is

of people wouldn’t have because often when an image is taken

actually a very fundamental part of my beginnings in

of somebody, it’s a performative thing. There’s a certain type of

the industry. Francis Goodman put me in contact with

neutrality that happens when I’ve taken them, of those people,

him and I landed up assisting him and met everybody

there’s always no performativeness. Although, it sometimes

in the industry, really. I started working at the Rental

does happen, of course, where they try to look more “gangster”,

House, cleaning and packing equipment. So I’ve got a

you know. That’s going to happen. I kind of wait for those

lot of respect for Chris Saunders, I think he’s also done

moments to subside and then take the image. But I’ve been

incredibly well with some amazing projects.

really lucky with that project,’ says Samuels. ‘Portraiture is my main focus at the moment; I think

‘I wanted to study fine art so I could learn to take all this in a beautiful image and I don’t think, necessarily,

there’s something quite beautiful about portraits. I think

that all of my work is beautiful. I think it’s emotive, which

there’s something that happens within a portrait between

is really what I wanted it to be. A feeling, something more

the viewer and the subject that’s quite beautiful and I

important than an image, you know? Photography is an

think that there’s some sort of a reflection, internally, that

incredible thing like that – its ability to make somebody feel

happens; an intensity of looking.

something, hopefully, for beyond just a moment.’ CF

32 / Creative Feel / August 2016

XVI X stands for 16 10, the postal code of Edenvale and this is what prompted my project. On my 21st birthday, my boss at the tattoo parlour said I should get a tattoo. Living in Edenvale himself, he had XVI X tattooed on his ankle; I had seen the same tattoo before, on many people also from Edenvale. For me, the decision to get this etched beneath my skin for the rest of my existence didn’t require any thought. I wanted it but I couldn’t explain why. It’s like when you buy that cheap, crappy toy gun from the toy store – you wanted it anyway, so you got it. This tattoo was exactly that. I wanted it and I got it. No second thoughts. Then I started to question this. Why the hell would anyone want to tattoo this on themselves? Like it doesn’t make sense. But to us, it does. This number is everywhere, its graffitied all over our streets, in our skatepark, in our clubs, tattooed on the side of a flying toaster on my mate’s leg and even on an iron-fist t-shirt, alongside a knuckleduster, batten and the word ‘Brotherhood’. I don’t really like this word; I think ‘brotherhood’ sounds too much like a gang, although it’s probably the best way to describe it, in some ways.

Creative Feel / August 2016 / 33

TO CREATE HOMES WITH

Nthabi Taukobong is the founding member and managing director of Ditau Interiors, an interior design consultation company based in Johannesburg, South Africa that provides an exclusive design service to a niche clientele.

thabi Taukobong’s design style is luxurious,

thought, ‘ooh perfect.’ I went for the interview and one of

yet effortlessly functional - with a strong focus

the guys called me aside and said, ‘do you know, you’ll be

on creating liveable interiors. Through her

working in the kitchen until 04:00 in gumboots, because

extensive experience in interior design and

you have to start at the back of the house.’ I then went to

having had a successful career spanning 20 years as one of

join the architecture queue, and it was so long, it dragged

the top interior designers in South Africa, Taukobong has

around the whole campus... The people in the queue were

created an African lifestyle brand exclusively designed and

so serious, and I thought, ‘no, that’s not me.’ I hopped

made in South Africa.

over to interior design and I started making friends in the queue; there was a certain understanding of design and

CREATIVE FEEL: Please give us some background on how

I knew I belonged there. I then did a three-year national

you got into interior design?

diploma in interior design at Natal Technikon. From there,

NTHABI TAUKOBONG: I knew from quite a young age

because destiny aligned I think, my first job was at a hotel

that I was definitely going to be an interior designer. I had

company that specialised in high-end hotels, like Palace of

an amazing art teacher in tenth grade who was able to

the Lost City, Table Bay Hotel, Blue Train, as well as hotels

guide us and said, ‘let’s go to Technikon open days, visit

in Mauritius. My first job was working on Sugar Beach

and see all the departments,’ and so we did: advertising,

Hotel in Mauritius. Within a week of joining the company,

graphic design, fine art, interior design and architecture.

I was off to an island and I worked there for three years.

Interior design made sense at that stage. After matric,

I was offered to renew my contract, but was ready to go

I went to Calvary, Canada for a year, as an exchange

on my own. All I knew was that I wanted an office with

student. When I came back I was steering towards interior

leopard print or zebra striped chairs. I didn’t know how

design, but had no reference or people I knew in the field.

I was going to run the business, but I knew if I had those

In architecture I did though, so I thought, ‘let me go try

chairs, everything would work out. I had a two-bedroom

architecture and hotel management.’ I wanted to design

flat, one of the rooms was run as my office and I had the

a hotel but there was no course that did hotel design. I

chairs, but I had no business. I had been on my own for

went to Natal Technikon, saw hotel management and

about three months when I attended a networking evening

34 / Creative Feel / August 2016

with an ex-colleague. One of our clients happened to see us there, and he said to us, ‘it’s not networking if you’re talking to each other.’ So I said, ‘I’ve actually gone out on my own.’ And he replied, ‘call me on Monday.’ That was my first job; I did Sun International in Cape Town, and various hotels and casinos, and from there on, I was in. We had a period of six years of doing hotels. This was in a time when lots of casinos were built, but eventually that industry died down and casinos were closed. I started focusing on high-end residential properties, which is what I am still doing. We have had fun times with our over-demanding, well-travelled clients with huge expectations and that’s the service that we offer to these people who often have a first, second and third home. We’ve done work in Ethiopia, Ghana, Rwanda, Angola and all parts of South Africa. I offer a full interior design service, from concepts, all the way from selecting the toilet paper to handing over the keys of a property, with everything in place, ready for the client to move in. We’ve done a VIP suite for Foreign Affairs at the airport; we’ve done it all. We did a suite in the Royal Mafikeng hotel for the royal family, used during the World Cup by the English team. CF: Style obviously changes over time, but how would you describe your own, preferred style? NT: I’ve been in this industry for 20 years and worked with clients at all levels. Personally, what I’m encouraging now on a personal level and for my clients, is effortless, laid-back luxury. Barefoot luxury. One should be able to take off ones shoes and jump onto a couch. You need to lose the formality of design and that’s what I’m encouraging. There’s always a sprinkle of African, that’s my nature, my x-factor, to add in something decidedly African. CF: When it comes to the actual material you like to work with, be it soft covering, curtains or carpeting. Is there a preference when it comes to choosing your fabric? NT: In the laid-back feel, natural linen with a sparkle of a little bit of velvet. I call it organic glam, you have to have a little bit of ‘zhoozsh’ to material. When I’m asked to do a project, my first thought would always be that it should not be average. As laid back as I am, there has to be a little bit of boho chic, you know, the x-factor. You’ve got to add something to it. So yes, there is, not necessarily a favourite fabric. I often check if there are kids in the home: I don’t want to make showcases of people’s homes, I want to create

Nthabi Taukobong

homes with soul that can be lived in. CF

Creative Feel / August 2016 / 35

DOKTER AND MISSES Dokter and Misses, this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s featured designer at 100% Design South Africa, is known for modernist pieces with strong construction lines and bold colours that form graphic shapes and spaces. Creative Feel spoke to Adriaan Hugo and Katy Taplin, the duo behind the brand. Dokter and Misses pieces will also be on display at the Creative Feel stand at 100% Design.

36 / Creative Feel / August 2016

okter and Misses is a Johannesburg-based multidisciplinary product design company. Established in 2007 by industrial designer Adriaan Hugo and graphic designer Katy Taplin they develop

furniture, lighting and interior solutions for private and corporate clients as well as educational institutions. Their hand-painted pieces form part of a growing catalogue of limited-edition collectible work that has been exhibited in Basel, Dubai, London, New York and Miami. CREATIVE FEEL: When was the first time you realised that you were passionate about design? DOKTER AND MISSES: Both of us showed a keen interested in the arts growing up so it was a natural progression.Â

resulted in cloud-like concrete bases, floating half spheres on glass, rounded stone cone monoliths and hanging leather storage hammocks. The collection’s distinctive style is inspired by the ‘sculpture-for-use’ philosophies of Japanese American artist and industrial designer, Isamu Noguchi, the distinctive marriage of lines and materials found in Brazilian modernist furniture and a handful of carefully selected emojis. CF: What’s your favourite piece from this line? Katy: Swings Cabinet Adriaan: Fantasia Mirror CF: How do you think you’ve changed over the years as designers? DAM: Experience has allowed us to have a clearer vision of the end product at the outset of the design process. We CF: Tell us the story of Dokter and Misses: how did you start

collaborate more and are constantly evolving and are trying

and where does the name ‘Dokter and Misses’ come from?

to stretch ourselves as designers.

DAM: We met while studying: Adriaan studied Industrial Design, Katy studied Graphic Design and we both worked

CF: What is your philosophy on sustainable or

in those respective fields before starting the company

eco-friendly design?

in late 2007. Our first project was a line of cardboard

DAM: Considered, high quality design is sustainable design.

handbags and we opened our first store at 44 Stanley

Planned obsolescence is the opposite of eco-friendly design.

Avenue. It’s been a slow and steady growth ever since and have moved to a larger showroom in Braamfontein and

CF: You have collaborated with so many interesting

workshop in Jeppestown.

people over the years, what is the importance of collaboration for you?

The origin of the name is a secret.

DAM: The chances of creating something new and unique are higher through collaboration, and it allows us to pool expertise

CF: What was the inspiration for your recent line?

and create products that we don’t have the expertise or

DAM: The new work that we’re presenting at 100% Design

capacity to pull of our own. Since the design process is largely

this year in entitled foreva xxx. We started our process by

centred around discovery and exploration a great collaboration

looking into creating new forms that largely stem from

works when both parties bring their A-game and we can learn

sketches and thoughts on material exploration, which has

from one another. CF

Creative Feel / August 2016 / 37

SOUTH AFRICA

2016

100% DESIGN 100 TIMES MORE EXCITEMENT The third annual 100% Design South Africa will take place from 5 to 9 August 2016 at the Gallagher Convention Centre, alongside Decorex Joburg. 100% Design South Africa is the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only international design show and will showcase only the finest of inspiring South African and international design.

38 / Creative Feel / August 2016

wait exciting new work and ranges from a stellar

Dokter and Misses is part of this stellar group of

exhibitor list of top local and global brands, from

exhibitors, and one of SA’s most successful design exports,

classic and contemporary furniture to ceramics,

takes centre stage as the Featured Design House for

textiles and more. All of which set the style pace

2016. Their Afro-modern designs will be showcased in an

for the year to come. The superbly curated feature displays – a

impressive exhibition space. Tonic Design, the sophisticated

standout element of the show – and the outstanding quality

studio of Slow Lounge fame, is the designer choice for the

of the exhibition stands combine to attract design trade

annual hospitality interior display, 100% Hotel. Similarly,

professionals and members of the public alike.

one of South Africa’s leading interior design firms, Inhouse

Guests to the show will be greeted with an astounding

Brand Architects, will present a concept design for the office

array of hues in the form of the main entrance feature,

of the future in the 100% Office Space. Haworth/Office

known as, 100% Colour, in association with Plascon. This

Furniture Africa will also unveil the latest workspace trends

year’s 100% Colour draws inspiration from the four wind

and innovation from around the world, which already makes

directions of Africa to inform a compass of colour.

for an exciting line up.

Creative Feel / August 2016 / 39

Another attraction, 100 Beautiful Things, carefully selects 100 beautiful South African product designs that are artfully displayed by 100% Design South Africa Programme Director, Cathy O’Clery 100% Design South Africa also encourages emerging talent and does this through a dedicated pavilion, 100% talent, providing a platform for the future luminaries of design. It is essential for 100% Design South Africa to exercise its social conscience and does this through supporting the arts education of children at risk. 100% Upliftment, features ceramics from Cape Town studio, Art in The Forest, with the profits of works sold contributing towards funding clay workshops for children though The Light from Africa Foundation. 100% Concrete, 100% Supermarket, Picture Africa and Talking Textiles, are four brand new attractions to be presented for the first time at this year’s show in Joburg. 100% Concrete, in partnership with PPC Imaginarium, will demonstrate the use of concrete in interiors, as well as launch and encourage entries into the country’s richest art and design competition. The aisles of the brand new 100% Supermarket will burst with newly launched designer goods that can be purchased on the spot, such as some of the country’s top décor, fashion, accessory and jewellery designers. 100% Textiles, successfully presented at Decorex Cape Town in April 2016 and curated by Cathy O’Clery, will also make an appearance in Joburg this year, where its initial focus on fabrics is extended to a series of presentations

100% Design South Africa takes place alongside Decorex

called Talking Textiles. This talks programme will

Joburg, but is located in a separate venue. As a bonus

highlight new fabrics and trends, it runs in the new Hub

for visitors, one ticket covers entrance to both shows.

area at the show.

Tickets range between R80 and R110 for adults and are

Design Team, Meyer von Wielligh, Willowlamp, Mungo, Joe Paine, David Bellamy, Leonardo and many more, are

R20 for children under 12. For more information, visit www.100percentdesign.co.za

other top-notch exhibitors to look forward to. An added attraction is the significant number of designers from

Also follow their social media accounts for more updates

Swaziland, Cape Town and Durban who will be present.

on the show:

Egg Design, Arkivio, Goodwood and Notation hail from

Facebook: 100% Design South Africa #100DesignSA

KwaZulu-Natal, while Douglas & Co, Hoi P’loy, Jasper Eales

Twitter: @100designsa #100DesignSA

and several others will travel to the show from the Mother

Instagram: @100percentdesignsa #100DesignSA

City, giving keen Gauteng audience access to wares that are otherwise hard to attain.

40 / Creative Feel / August 2016

A hit of design inspiration not to be missed!

Creative Feel / August 2016 / 41

Functional Art Honoured Determined designer, Laurie Wiid van Heerden effortlessly reflects on his career, mentors and his 2015 ImpACT Award win.

lick, meticulous and an eye for craftsmanship,

‘My mentors always encourage me,’ he says. They have

2015 Design ImpACT award winner, Laurie Wiid

guided him to ‘just keep it real, to focus on the quality of

van Heerden claims that he has never had his head

the work.’ And the down-to-earth designer, who has won a

in the books when it comes to design. One will

number of awards in the design industry, states that when

be pleasantly surprised when one peruses the Wiid Design

he heard about his nomination for the ImpACT Award:

catalogue, to find that this design guru never studied nor

‘I thought to myself, “there’s no way I’ll get it…” When

formally considered a career in design. He believes that

I won the award I was extremely surprised,’ he says. He

his work is simply ‘functional art’ to be exhibited and sold.

acknowledges that there is a great deal of talent in South

This conciseness is evident in his approach to all his work:

Africa and that it was a privilege to sit amongst a variety of

business, art; no frills needed. Van Heerden resides in

artists at different stages of their careers at the glitzy awards

Observatory, Cape Town where he has custom designed his

ceremony. ‘The awards evening was quite beautiful,’ he says,

ultramodern design studio. With business booming, he has

and he was honoured to be recognised in the cultural sector;

hardly had time to conceptualise work, rather he is occupied

and by an institution with the status of the Arts & Culture

with a variety of commissions and exhibitions. As he speaks of

Trust (ACT). The awards evening included the Lifetime

his studio like a proud parent telling how their progeny’s first

Achievement Awards as well as the awards for young artists,

word came to be, one can sense that his studio is certainly

which Van Heerden thinks is ‘very cool’. He strongly believes

a source of great pride. Van Heerden considers a strong and

in the importance of mentorship as someone who found

close relationship with a mentor vital and when it came to

himself in the design industry by working for a company.

investing and signing the deal for his own space, it was no

He remembers thinking, ‘Wow! People can make a

different. He has surrounded himself with esteemed mentors

living and it looks fun,’ and so a designer was born. He

since embarking on his career; Wim Botha to name one. The

has a keen understanding of materials and the processes

pair have worked alongside each other for almost four years,

involved in the shaping of matter so he finds mentors that

while he does not generally ask for artistic advice but rather

help him to craft his innate skill into economically feasible

business-oriented counsel. He acknowledges the mentorship

art. ‘I would say that 60 per cent of my product is art; it’s

as the cornerstone of his unequivocal success.

functional art,’ says the nature conservationist. His passion

42 / Creative Feel / August 2016

for creation and nature conservation makes for the singular style of Wiid Design’s craft. It is earthy and contemporary simultaneously. Van Heerden is one of the first people to collaborate with product designers in this country. He says that once he discovered what he wanted to do, he decided that he wanted to be one of the best in the country; and his awards speak to his having achieved that aim. ‘I’ve got this weird type of thing,’ he articulates, ‘where if I want something I just go for it.’ It may have taken years to build up the stellar reputation that has him busy day after day in his studio, but he certainly appreciates the work that he has done and continues to do. His neat and precise studio is an extension of himself. He has a hand in everything that is made and ‘so it’s very personal’. He calls it surreal to be able to stand outside his office, look over the showroom and gallery, and see everything that he manages to create. ‘I’m just good at design,’ he says unassumingly. And his family is just as surprised as he is at all that he has achieved. But his entrepreneur parents are very supportive and he is grateful. He is currently working toward 100% Design London and South Africa. CF

Creative Feel / August 2016 / 43

27 Squares for

27BOXES

ituated in the popular, social centre of Melville,

Now almost a year old, 27Boxes continues to provide

27Boxes is a first for South Africa. This retail

a unique space for visitors to explore new flavours

shopping centre is made entirely of shipping

and find one-of-a-kind items in a relaxed, yet trendy,

containers and uses recycled materials to

environment. With short term leases to suite the creative

create small shop spaces ideal for independent creative

entrepreneur, each visit to the centre provides new

entrepreneurs. This eco-friendly destination consists of a

and exciting stores not seen before. In addition to the

total of 102 stalls, forming approximately 27 square metres,

stores, visitors can explore the Northwest Market every

and is home to a variety of retailers: from exclusive fashion

Wednesday at 17:00.

brands to delightful treats and hand-crafted creations. Not only is 27Boxes bold and innovative in its

Citiq Property Services, developers and managers of 27Boxes, was established in 2005 and grew its portfolio

aesthetic, but also in its approach to eco-friendly property

to over 100 apartments by the end of 2006. Situated in

development. A structure of this kind, whether long-term or

the vibrant metropolitan hub of Braamfontein, Citiq

temporary, is versatile in its construction and the materials

provides a range of property management services such

can be reused for new structures once the building has

as property administration, rental collection, call centre

been deconstructed. It is this level of sustainability that

infrastructure, leasing and facilities management. Since

is becoming popular and desirable worldwide. Londonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

2006, Citiq have broadened their services to include

Box Park, for example, is a similar, container-like shopping

townhouses, student housing and commercial property.

centre that was the inspiration for Citiq structural engineer,

In 2012, Citiq launched South Africaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first residential

Arthur Blake. Blakeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s passion for design and architecture has

building made entirely out of shipping containers. This

seen Citiq develop similar innovative structures such as the

fresh new approach to student housing is situated in

grain silo conversion into flats in Newtown.

Pretoria and can house 2 300 students. CF

44 / Creative Feel / August 2016

Creative Feel / August 2016 / 45

Multimedia works shine at Barclays L’Atelier 2016 This year’s Barclays L’Atelier has proven to be one of the most strongly contested editions of the annual contemporary art competition. With a fresh pool of young African artists significantly raising previous benchmarks, the 2016 winners

‘Barclays L’Atelier is renowned for delivering fresh, compelling insights from South Africa’s hottest young talent. But this year, with the competition being expanded to include ten African countries in addition to South Africa, it effectively extended the continental conversation about art, delivering not only great diversity in aesthetic, but also dominant narratives from particular regions across the continent. The competition this year was extremely robust and our winners are most deserving of their accolades. The winning works reflect the strongest conceptual framework,’ adds Bayliss. The rest of the 2016 Barclays L’Atelier top ten finalists include Jackie Karuti of Kenya for her photographic triptych I can’t wait to see you; South African Thandiwe Msebenzi of Cape Town for her photographic work Kwazi Kubenini; South African Sethembile Msezane of Cape Town for the photographic piece Chapungu – The Day Rhodes Fell; South African Asemahle Ntlonti of Cape Town for the sculpture Living Sacrifice; and South African Muntu Vilakazi of Johannesburg for the photographic work Mass

have shown the diverse range of talent

Therapy: 2015.

present on the continent.

works, can be viewed in the competition’s first-ever virtual

ourhan Refaat of Egypt has claimed top spot

These winning works, along with the rest of the top 100 exhibition hosted on www.lateliercompetition.com Barclays L’Atelier, held in conjunction with the South

and the main prize of R225 000. She also wins a

African National Association for the Visual Arts (SANAVA),

six-month residency at the Cité Internationale

nurtures young talent and serves as a platform for young and

des Arts in Paris (including return airfare) for her

emerging artists to make their mark in the African art arena.

photographic work July Tale. Another highlight of the award is

Last year, for the first time in the competition’s 30-year

a solo exhibition at the Absa Gallery in Johannesburg in 2018.

history, participation in the event was extended beyond South

South African Matete Motubatse has won the Gerard Sekoto

Africa’s borders to include artists from Botswana, Zambia,

Award and a three months’ residency at the Cité Internationale

Ghana and Kenya. This year’s competition was further extended

des Arts, including return airfare, stipend and a travelling

to Egypt, Uganda, Tanzania, Mauritius and Seychelles.

exhbition in South Africa upon his return, for his video Moya. The three merit awards go to Onyis Martin of Kenya (a

Of particular attraction to entrants are the opportunities to attend a two-day art professionalism course in

three-month residency with the Bag Factory, Johannesburg;

Johannesburg that will assist them in managing their art

includes return airfare and a monthly stipend) for his mixed

careers as viable businesses and the Barclays L’Atelier

media piece Does it matter who is speaking?; Donald Wasswa

mentorship programme – two sought-after awards presented

of Uganda (a two-month residency at the Kunst:Raum

to the top ten L’Atelier finalists.

Foundation, Sylt Quelle, Germany; includes return airfare

The competition also rewards the winning visual artists

and a monthly stipend) for his work Maali Ya Muswangali

with once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to develop their

utilising leather off-cuts in plastic bags and sisal threads;

talents abroad through art residencies among international

and, South African Lebo Rasenyalo (a one-month residency

artists. Barclays L’Atelier is therefore widely celebrated as

with Ampersand Foundation, New York, USA; includes return

the African art competition that has a far-reaching and

airfare and stipend) for her video O mogeng lebo, Nomo.

sustainable impact on young artists’ careers.

Dr Paul Bayliss, Absa Art and Museum Curator, says

‘This aligns with Barclays Africa’s focus on Shared

Barclays L’Atelier is now a truly continental art competition,

Growth which, in essence, reflects our commitment towards

as reflected in the diversity of entries received from

making a positive impact on the various communities we

participating African countries.

serve,’ concludes Bayliss. CF

46 / Creative Feel / August 2016

When She Holds A Camera… The top spot for the 2016 Barclays L’Atelier, a prize of R225 000 and a six-month residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, has been won by Egyptian photographer and artist, Nourhan Refaat.

ourhan Refaat’s winning work, July Tale, is a mask and photography project composed of three portraits. July Tale, says Refaat, ‘talks about the relationship between two people and, as you can

see, the woman here is blind: she doesn’t see things and the man is silent: he doesn’t speak. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, I am leaving to the viewers, they can imagine what it is like for these two people, how they communicate. In spite of these barriers, they are investing in this relationship, which I have expressed through the knitting process. As a symbol of them investing in the relationship, the thread encircles them as they are so tied together, so attached. If he is not there, she is still invested in this relationship and she still thinks that he is there. And even if she is not there, he still thinks about her. That was my concept, but I’m always open to new stories. When people ask me, “what’s the story here?” I tell them, “tell me your story.” That is the beauty of art, one piece can be defined by several stories and opinions. ‘The contemporary art scene in Egypt is growing so well,’ says Refaat. ‘There are many contemporary artists from the youth and we have several annual exhibitions where you will find artists from different walks of life participating.’ Will she practice art full-time now that she has won the Barclays L’Atelier? ‘I’ve been thinking about going full-time in art for a while now because business is kind of challenging for me,

‘You have to go through lots of steps and years of practicing

but it’s hard to get a source of income out of art only, given

and I believe that this is not the end. I’m currently working with

the current economic situation. It’s very challenging, I will

staged photography but have also started thinking about other

have to think about it.’

mediums like collage and installation. I haven’t done it yet, but

Born in 1990, Refaat majored in accounting at university and has been working in marketing and communication for the past five years – including working as a social media consultant

I’m attending workshops to explore new things because the sky is the limit in art.’ Since 2013, Refaat has participated in many

for UNICEF Egypt. She is a self-taught artist and photographer

photographic group exhibitions, including When She Holds

and has only been working in photography for five years. A few

A Camera – showcasing 15 great photographs by talented

years ago, Refaat discovered a love for ‘staged photography’.

rising female photographers in Cairo. CF

Creative Feel / August 2016 / 47

Moya/Breath

breath, spirit and soul are all non-physical. The film Moya symbolises ntwa ya moya: an intense celestial battle of nonphysical forces. Motubatse entered the L’Atelier for the first time in 2012

Matete Motubatse has been awarded

and almost didn’t enter this year – fortunately a friend

the Barclays L’Atelier Gerard Sekoto

convinced him. ‘I entered this artwork because I feel like it

Award and a three-month residency at

was very relevant to what is happening in the world. I make

the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris

work that is more about bringing together a lot of interests.’ And his interests are wide ranging: ‘I express myself in many

for his video Moya.

atete Motubatse is a fourth year student at the

ways. I paint, which is usually for myself, and I write [poetry] as well. I also do printmaking. I believe that any artwork can be made; you just have to find the right medium for it.’ Motubatse’s work is incredibly influenced by the art

Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape

world around him: ‘I go to galleries, especially STEVENSON.

Town. He is also the recipient of the 2016 South

I make it my business to study all the art. I also follow pop

African Society of Arts (SASA) Prize.

culture. Particularly Rhythm Science by DJ Spooky, he’s

In his video, Moya, Motubatse’s character attempts

basically talking about how DJing is a way of taking what’s

to blow a physical object – a plastic bag – off of his head

already out there in the world and mixing it and owning it.

by using his breath. The Sepedi word, moya translates

So I took all these influences from all these industries and I

to ‘breath’ but also means ‘air’, ‘spirit’ and/or ‘soul’. The

ended up making this one work.’

material bag thus represents the material form of a non-

The Gerard Sekoto Award is sponsored by the Embassy

physical form that blocks the body from breathing. To

of France in South Africa, the French Institute of South

use breath to contest the very object that suffocates air

Africa (IFAS) which is a cultural arm of the Embassy, and the

is equivalent to entering a spiritual, soulful battle as air,

Alliance Francaise network in South Africa. CF

48 / Creative Feel / August 2016

Does it matter who is speaking? Onyis Martin of Kenya has won one of three merit awards (a three-month Bag Factory residency) at the 2016 Barclays L’Atelier for his piece, Does it matter who is speaking?

nyis Martin is a Nairobi-based artist who uses multimedia to create diverse art pieces. He has done a number of courses in art and craft, as well as teaching these at the Mukuru Art and Craft Centre. In 2014

and 2015, Martin won awards to exhibit in Taiwan at the Taipei International Art Competition. He has participated locally in a number of group exhibitions, including the Kenya Art Fair and the Circle Art Gallery’s exhibitions Paper II in Nairobi, both in 2015. The doorway in Does it matter who is speaking? is used as a metaphor to inquire into human perceptions of gender. Perception is not the passive receipt of signals but is shaped by culture, recollection, intentions and attention. The figures are letters; by extension words, which assume gender perceptions that have been conditioned by the society over time. The exit and entry points are subjective and the factual observations still do not guarantee the same perspective. Affirmative action for either gender is a form of inequality, one is limited by what they are perceived to be and gender is a kind of war. Some figures are confused, some are female, others male and even mixed, seemingly asking, does it matter who is speaking? ‘Generally, my process is more about conceptualising my ideas. Usually things that affect me personally, but then I know my story is the story of everybody or a group of people… Then I look at what possible medium is the best way to present my concept, particularly, this involves going to places where there’s demolition and stuff, getting the doors – sometimes for free. Its also about assemblage, you pick pieces and then you assemble... I’m usually trying to break the old rule of “this is the way the art work should be represented”… I’m more into: can we have more ways of communication? Sometimes you get into your comfort zone and then you sit there. Physically, I try to create it but mentally I’m breaking free. I’m in a war with myself, the physical and the mental trying to outdo each other.’ CF

Creative Feel / August 2016 / 49

Money for Muswangali

from photographers, musicians, poets, fashion designers,

Donald Wasswa of Uganda has been

ceramists and sculptors. Wasswa is also a member of the

awarded one of three merit awards

art discipline greatly contributes to the strength of the

(a two-month residency Kunst:Raum Foundation, Sylt Quelle, Germany) at the 2016 Barclays L’Atelier for his work Maali Ya Muswangali.

weaver bird artist village and he strongly believes that each other, so working together with other artists is enough to be inspired to create. ‘This work is called Maali ya Muswangali,’ says Wasswa. ‘Maali means “money” and Muswangali is the name of a person in Uganda; a guy. I created his story from an actual story of a guy who comes from the village; he has never been to Kampala. He is contacted by a friend, in Kampala, and told that he can actually make ends meet by selling his maize.

onald Wasswa is a full-time, practicing

So he has to organise transport and find a way of getting the

contemporary artist who traces his talent from his

maize up to Kampala... on the way his maize gets misplaced

father. He graduated from Kyambogo University

or stolen. He then tries to follow up and realises it is in

where he majored in sculpture and painting.

Kenya, but on the border of Kenya and Uganda. After some

Wasswa prefers to be called an artist without boundaries,

time, they get the bags back into Kampala but when they

he creates his work through experiments studying the

get back to Kampala, its not the maize inside, it is trash. So

behaviours of different materials in relation to his subjects.

the guy is disappointed because expectations are not met,

Wasswa is the founder of the Artpunch Studio where he works with a number of different artists, ranging

50 / Creative Feel / August 2016

chasing home and trying to find out if it’s worth coming to Kampala. So the whole piece is about our expectations.’ CF

In Search of Authenticity

understanding of herself is layered with rituals of existing in

Lebo Rasenyalo has been awarded a

She says, ‘the black person has continued to perform in

one-month residency at the Ampersand

urban, aspirational spaces. Rasenyalo is interested in pursuing an authentic expression of herself contrary to her performed existence. order to maintain the economic relationship where the employer was historically white. The African person also

Foundation at the 2016 Barclays L’Atelier

further continued to suppress cultural practices to exist in

for her video O mogeng lebo, Nomo.

and present her actual existence.

the urban environment.’ Her pursuit is the need to define ‘I hope to one day achieve true authentic self but to do

so and to get there, I still have to engage with my history. Where my people have come from in workspaces, I have to

outh African Lebo Rasenyalo obtained her

understand that for them to aspire to be in places; what they

BA (Dramatic Arts) from the University of the

have had to suppress and sacrifice of themselves, I do have

Witwatersrand. She is presently completing her Post

to search for my identity on various levels of consciousness.

Graduate Certificate in Education from UNISA.

I find that in that search you have to go back to texts written

In O mogeng lebo, Nomo, Rasenyalo depicts a creator,

by Europeans, once again, which are mediated. Which speaks

who is the subject of the work. The exercise reveals the

back to the ethics of the mediator affecting the output but I

possibility of the product, the subject and the creator all

still have to rely on those texts to get to know myself. So it’s

being interchangeable. She is interested in the reflexive

fragmented but I’m aspiring still. The landscapes, while it’s

products and confronts the costuming and discourse of her

a space I aspire to go to, also represent workspaces for my

body. Rasenyalo worked with the intention of elevating the

ancestors. So I’m still not free, even though I am. I still have

imagery to something of her own making; the conscious

to deal with that reality.’ CF

Creative Feel / August 2016 / 51

Chicago

ITâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S SHOWTIME! In celebration of Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Month, Creative Feel chatted to one of the best-known personalities in the South African entertainment industry, Hazel Feldman, the Founder and Director of Showtime Management. One of the first women in this male-dominated environment, she is now one of the biggest producers of local shows and international talent in South Africa.

52 / Creative Feel / August 2016

he list of shows that Hazel Feldman produced here in South Africa reads like the crème de la crème of musicals: Chicago, We Will Rock You, Rent, Dreamgirls and Jersey Boys. There are, of course,

her famous concert productions with Pavarotti, The Rolling Stones, The Three Tenors, Queen, Frank Sinatra, Elton John and Rod Stewart. Talking about her company’s current and future productions, her on-going love and passion for entertainment becomes clearly evident – with plans already in place for the next few years. At the moment, she is much involved (and loves it) in what she terms ‘Family Entertainment’ like Disney On Ice or Slava’s Snowshow, a wordless show that leaves you speechless. And then there are the preparations for Annie, the Broadway musical based on the popular comic strip, Little Orphan Annie. A real family musical that will be staged in Johannesburg and Cape Town later in the year. Looking back, Feldman talks about becoming a young cadet journalist at the Rand Daily Mail in the late 1960s, an incredible era when she just wanted to change the world. It wasn’t an easy time for women in journalism and there were very few women in hard-hitting journalistic roles, where she wanted to be. Her writing as a journalist was often restricted to ‘women’s interest’ or what was considered to be

Chicago Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Yannick Lebrun and Glenn Allen Sims. PHOTO Andrew Eccles

‘women’s interest’ at the time. Since it also involved writing reviews of shows and performances, her life changed when she was made an offer that she could not refuse: to run the press office at African Theatres. She realised that this was an opportunity for her to start her own business and do freelance work. She had recently got married, was pregnant with her first son and thought she could work from home. There were a lot of shows coming into the country at that stage and she knew the relevant media to work with. In 1979, she received a call from Sol Kerzner saying that he was starting up Sun City. Kerzner took Feldman and her husband up in his helicopter to see this place in the bush, a roughly dug-up building site in a valley, in a volcanic crater. He pointed out where the golf course, the hotel, and the theatre would be. ‘My husband and I looked at this and thought this man was totally insane, completely mad! When we landed, he asked if I would like to take over the entertainment side of Sun City and my husband to organise the Million Dollar Golf Challenge. We worked with him for an incredible 14 years. Sol inspired us – opened up opportunities and a vision for you to see what you could achieve. He didn’t care how you did it. If something needed to be done, then you just got on and did it. He had the attitude: if you can see it and dream it, you can do it.

Creative Feel / August 2016 / 53

Slava’s Snowshow ‘Sol wanted Frank Sinatra to open the Superbowl. At the

‘We often struggle to get the audiences in South Africa.

time, we did not have a theatre or even a venue. We had a

There are union restrictions to taking our productions into

hole in the ground and the cultural boycott was starting to

many parts of the world – such as Australia, the States, and

bite, with South Africa being the outcast of the world. But

the UK. However, we can take our productions to Asia, which

we were still going to try and book the biggest artist in the

has become the largest emerging theatre market in the world,

world for the opening of the Superbowl! Mickey Rooney was

and they love western musicals. We took the South African

Sinatra’s Manager at the time, his publicist was Lee Solters

production of We Will Rock You to Singapore, Hong Kong and

and we managed to get them to Sun City even though the

Korea and had tremendous success over there. It opened up

Superbowl was still the dusty building site and… Frank

a market, which means we can extend the performance from

Sinatra opened later the brand new venue.

ten to sixteen weeks, which makes it financially viable. This is

‘During that time, it was the height of the apartheid era and there were massive challenges. Sun City went, of course,

something I have been really concentrating on.’ When asked about missed opportunities, Feldman

under the banner of Bophuthatswana, and it was great to

shares her dream to have brought out Barbra Streisand and

have 100 per cent integrated audiences from all over South

Bette Midler, but they are way too expensive and it has just

Africa and throughout Africa that opened the eyes of so

not been possible. She also still dreams of an iconic South

many people.’

African musical based on the life of Johnny Clegg at the level

Feldman has been in the South African entertainment

of a Broadway show, but it is difficult to get funding –

industry for so many years and asking her to choose her

a massive challenge. But then, that is what Hazel Feldman

very best show is difficult. She feels that Chicago and We

thrives on – challenges. CF

Will Rock You were terrific and also financially successful. There have been shows where her heart ruled over her purse that did not work out. For example, Dreamgirls was probably up there with the best shows that she ever did and loved. She put her heart and soul, and her house, into it. It was a fantastic production. But, she could not sell the seats. The reviews were great but she had to cut the show short and lost a lot of her own money – but paid every performer, supplier and the whole crew. ‘Without the booking support, you can’t do it. Hazel Feldman, Barry Ronge, Joan Brickhill and Amra-Faye Wright

54 / Creative Feel / August 2016

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The rhythmic strum of a jazz guitar, the rich timbre of the saxophone and trombone, the pulsating beat of drums and the earthy tones of marimbas, the graceful notes of the flute… These melodic sounds will form the soundtrack to the 2016 SAMRO Overseas Scholarships Competition, which has narrowed down the search for the country’s best young instrumentalists to twelve outstanding candidates.

SAMRO Foundation picks twelve to battle for their share of half a million

he SAMRO Foundation has announced the six Jazz and six Western Art Music semi-finalists who will compete in August for a shot at South Africa’s most alluring postgraduate music study award: two R200 000 scholarships to further their studies and

professional development abroad. There are also a number of additional prizes on offer for the twelve young virtuosos, many of whom have already notched up impressive achievements both locally and internationally. These semi-finalists are truly the cream of South Africa’s instrumental crop, and all have the talent, ability and passion to go on to scale even greater heights. They will compete in the competition’s semi-final round in Johannesburg on Thursday 18 August 2016, judged by a topnotch panel of music professionals. Two Jazz and two Western Art Music finalists will then be selected to square off against each other at the Linder Auditorium on Saturday, 20 August 2016. They will perform repertoire of their own choosing, as well as premiering new commissioned works by leading South African composers. These musical clashes always make for riveting entertainment, and offer the public the rare opportunity to witness the birth of tomorrow’s stars today. The Jazz semi-finalists are Keenan Ahrends (guitar), Justin Bellairs (alto saxophone), Siyasanga Charles (trombone), Benjamin Jephta (bass guitar), Sidney Rash (drums) and Linda Sikhakhane (tenor sax). The Western Art Music semi-finalists are Matthew Lombard (saxophone), Sally Minter (flute), Myles Roberts (flute), Neil Robertson (flute), Dylan Tabisher (marimba) and Tatiana Thaele (flute).

56 / Creative Feel / August 2016

JAZZ SEMI-FINALISTS KEENAN AHRENDS (28) Keenan is a Cape Town-based jazz guitarist who started playing at the age of 15. Since completing his jazz performance studies at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and the Norwegian Academy of Music in 2009, he has been actively involved in performing, composing and teaching. During his tertiary studies, he studied under the likes of Jon Eberson, Eckhard Baur, Alvin Dyers and Andrew Lilley. Keenan has collaborated with established musicians such as Louis Moholo, Andile Yenana, Carlo Mombelli, Afrika Mkhize, Herbie Tsoaeli, Buddy Wells, Mark Fransman, Shane Cooper, as well as international recording artists Somi, Salim Washington and Kevin Gibson.

JUSTIN BELLAIRS (26) Justin studied jazz performance, where he was tutored on saxophone by Prof Mike Rossi. He spent a year at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo and played in its big band. Since then, he has performed professionally in several bands, musical productions and shows. Artists he has performed with include Andrew Lilley, Feya Faku, Marcus Wyatt, Kesivan Naidoo, Shane Cooper, Melanie Scholtz, Kyle Shepherd, Bokani Dyer and Nduduzo Makhathini. Justin has also played at various national jazz festivals, as well as in Norway, Sweden, Botswana, and the United States (including the prestigious Carnegie Hall with Kesivan and the Lights).

SIYASANGA CHARLES (25) Siyasanga is a tenor/bass trombonist who was born in Johannesburg and raised in Cape Town. She graduated with a Bachelor of Music (Honours) degree in jazz trombone performance with distinction at UCT in 2013 and is currently completing the final year of her Masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree, specialising in jazz trombone performance, at UCT. Siya has played in ensembles such as the Standard Bank National Youth Jazz Band, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Jeunesses Musicales Jazz World Orchestra and the South African National Youth Orchestra. She has performed at several local and international jazz festivals, from Italy and Sweden to Nigeria and Norway.

BENJAMIN JEPHTA (23) Benjamin is regarded as one of South Africaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s premier jazz double bass and electric bass players. Born in Mitchells Plain, his love of jazz was nurtured by Muizenberg High School music teacher Fred Kuit. Performing locally since the age of 15, Benjamin went on to play with orchestras and small ensembles in Africa, Europe and Asia. He graduated from UCT in 2013 with the fourth-year class medal. He has performed with jazz musicians such as McCoy Mrubata, Sibongile Khumalo, Paul Hanmer, Feya Faku, Jimmy Dludlu, Simphiwe Dana, Hugh Masekela, Marcus Wyatt and Kyle Shepherd. His debut album, Homecoming, was nominated for Metro FM and SAMA awards.

Creative Feel / August 2016 / 57

SIDNEY JOSEPH RASH (29) Sidney is quickly becoming an in-demand session drummer, and has already worked with premier South African and international artists (including Barry Gibb, French Montana, Paul Potts and Darius Brubeck). He is known for his musicality and versatility on the drums, and graduated with an Honours degree summa cum laude from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2008. Sidney has an ability to work in a range of styles, always bringing phenomenal energy to any project he is a part of. He also teaches drums in Durban, and is passionate about seeing the next generation of musicians achieve the very best that they can.

LINDA SIKHAKHANE (24) Linda is a Johannesburg-based saxophonist, composer and arranger. He was born in Umlazi, where his love for music, especially jazz, was triggered at an early age. This saw him attending music classes and performing professionally since the age of 15. He later studied jazz at the University of KwaZulu-Natal under Prof Mageshen Naidoo. Linda has played with respected South African and international artists such as Barney Rachabane, Brian Thusi, Feya Faku, Marcus Wyatt, Gregory Porter and Malcolm Braff, as well as at local jazz festivals. He played tenor saxophone on Nduduzo Makhathini’s album Mother Tongue and formed part of Afrika Mkhize’s Septet and the group H3.

WESTERN ART MUSIC SEMI-FINALISTS MATTHEW LOMBARD (29) Matthew is a Pretoria-based concert saxophonist and educator. After completing his post-graduate studies in the United Kingdom in 2013, Matthew started actively promoting the saxophone as a serious classical instrument in South Africa. He initiated the first National Saxophone Symposium in partnership with Prof Karendra Devroop and the UNISA Music Foundation in 2014. This was followed by a national tour inspired by the event entitled “Battle of the Saxes” during the first symposium. The second such symposium was hosted earlier this year to great success. Matthew has been offered a doctoral position for saxophone performance at the University of California in Los Angeles which he will pursue in September 2016.

SALLY MINTER (28) Sally graduated with a Master of Arts degree with merit from the Royal Academy of Music in London where she studied with renowned flautist Paul Edmund-Davies. During her time in London, Sally performed under the baton of esteemed conductor Marin Alsop. Obtaining her Bachelor of Music from UCT with distinction under Bridget Rennie Salonen, Sally was awarded the class medal for three consecutive years for achieving the highest aggregate. Highlights of her South African performance career as a flautist include playing as a concerto soloist with every major orchestra in the country, and winning the Fine Music Radio Nussbaum Competition.

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MYLES ROBERTS (24) Within a year of starting flute lessons at 13, Myles was already performing as a soloist. Since then, he has played as a soloist with some of South Africa’s leading orchestras as well as under German maestro Martin Wettges. Myles was named most outstanding flautist in the 2015 Galway Flute Festival in Switzerland. He has served as the principal flute of the University of Stellenbosch Symphony Orchestra, the National Youth Orchestra and the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival Orchestra. He completed a Master’s degree under the tutelage of Prof Corvin Matei and is currently at the Civica Scuola di Musica Claudio Abbado in Milan.

NEIL ROBERTSON (21) Neil started playing piano at the age of eight, flute at 10 and organ at 14, excelling in all three instruments. He started studying at UCT in 2013 with Bridget Rennie Salonen (flute) and Grant Bräsler (organ). Neil has participated in many competitions for both instruments, and recently won the second instrument category in the Suider-Afrikaanse Kerkorrelistevereniging Bursary Competition. Performances include an organ concerto with baroque ensemble Camerata Tinta Barocca. He is also the full-time organist at Rondebosch United Church. Neil has stayed on the Dean’s Merit List since 2013 and is one of three orchestra managers at UCT’s South African College of Music.

DYLAN TABISHER (27) Dylan started playing percussion in 2002 with Suzette Brits at the Hugo Lambrechts Music Centre. He completed his BMus with Hons and MMus cum laude at Stellenbosch University. In 2012, Dylan was selected with his duo partner, Cherilee Adams, as the overall winners of the ATKV Muziq competition. In that year he was also selected as a semi-finalist at the Sixth World Marimba Competition in Stuttgart. In 2013, the university’s percussion duo was named semi-finalists in the Universal Marimba Competition in Belgium. Dylan is an active performer and has appeared as a soloist with the Cape Town, KwaZulu-Natal and Stellenbosch University orchestras.

TATIANA THAELE (26) Flautist Tatiana has appeared as a soloist with most of South Africa’s larger orchestras. In 2007 she was the woodwind runner-up in the Artscape National Youth Competition. She was an ATKV competition semi-finalist in 2013 and 2016, and won the tertiary category in the 2014 Grahamstown Music Competition, receiving an additional prize for the best woodwind player. She has attended master classes with Susan Milan, Hansgeorg Schmeiser and Philippe Boucly amongst others. Upon invitation, she studied with Schmeiser at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna from 2014 to 2015, and obtained her Master’s degree in music with distinction from UCT this year.

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DIVAS OF KOFIFI Sophiatown, or Sof’town or Kofifi, in the suburbs of Johannesburg, was one of the last places in the city where people of any race could live or do business together. It became known for its bohemian lifestyle and vibrant music scene. Sophiatown flourished, attracting entrepreneurs, lawyers, activists and teachers, while the mix of cultures and races that became characteristic of the suburb inspired musicians, writers and artists.

ophiatown was the ‘Chicago of South Africa’,

multiracial inhabitants of Johannesburg’s Sophiatown kept

a vibrant community that produced not only

the dreams of a true South African society alive. These

gangsters and shebeen queens, but also leading

dreams became evident in the music, art and writing of a

journalists, writers, musicians and politicians. It

talented group of Sophiatown’s intellectuals, like Oliver

gave urban African culture its rhythm and style. By the 1940s,

Tambo, who taught at Sophiatown’s St Cyprian’s School,

this historic suburb was a living example of South Africa’s

the largest primary school in South Africa. It also inspired

potential for a multicultural society. Sixty years ago, as part

Gerard Sekoto, who captured the spirit of Sophiatown in his

of the apartheid government’s forced removal programme,

art; and journalists like Henry Nxumalo, who worked for

Sophiatown was earmarked for destruction to clear the

Drum magazine, a publication that was in some ways the

multiracial neighbourhood and turn it into a whites-only area.

barometer of the time.

The people of Sophiatown resisted the removal, but over some

Of course, there was the music of Sophiatown, kept alive

eight years the 65 000 residents were forced to relocate. The

by jazz musicians like Hugh Masekela, Abdullah Ibrahim,

area became a whites-only suburb called Triomf.

Jonas Gwangwa and Miriam Makeba. They went on to

In the 1940s and ‘50s, the multiculturalism of the

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become some of the most respected jazz musicians in the

Thandi Klassen who, like Kubeka also grew up in Sophiatown, was inspired to become a jazz singer when a jazz group, ‘The Jazz Maniacs’, visited her school. She began her career as a singer/dancer in the mid 1950s. She also starred in King Kong and performed alongside other great musicians such as Sophie Mgcina, Dorothy Rathebe and, of course, Miriam Makeba. Dorothy Masuka was born in Bulawayo, then Southern Rhodesia, and later moved to South Africa with her family as a young girl. By 16, she was a top recording star and was only 19 when she started touring the world with some of her musical role models. Her songs provided insight into the socio-political issues of township life in the 1950s. As a result of her political affiliations, she fled to Zambia in the 1960s, only returning to South Africa after Mandela’s release. Divas of Kofifi narrates the story of Zawazi who, in present day South Africa, is the owner of a jazz restaurant that was once owned by her late parents. She stumbles upon her father’s hand-written manuscript that revives vivid memories that have defined part of South Africa’s heritage today. These memories of how a community of rebellious youth in Sophiatown, trying to imitate the fantasy lives they saw in movies, laid the foundation of black music and storytelling in Southern Africa. Writer Bongile Lecoge-Zulu is a multifaceted artist, Abigail Khubeka, Thandi Klaasen and Dorothy Masuka

with a sound musical and performance talent. She graduated with a Bachelor of Music from the University of the Witwatersrand School of Arts and has been involved in a number of collaborative interdisciplinary artistic

world. Sophiatown’s jazz musicians’ artistic and political

endeavours. Through an energetic engagement between a

influence radiated from South Africa, reaching the African

young enthusiast and an old soul, Lecoge-Zulu shows how

diaspora and beyond. It expressed the ideals of freedom and

Zawazi ventures to complete her father’s legacy as she

equality that Sophiatown was famous for. In doing so, it

engages with BabStix, a retired factory worker and now a

engaged the world in the struggle against apartheid.

humble shoe-fixer, on his remembrance of Kofifi.

The Market Theatre’s staging of Divas of Kofifi during

Standard Bank Young Artist for Theatre 2012, Princess

August, Women’s Month 2016, commemorates the 60th

Zinzi Mhlongo, directs this upbeat production. Mhlongo

anniversary of the forced removals of Sophiatown. At

directed her professional debut, And The Girls in Their

the same time, it celebrates the music of Sophiatown, by

Sunday Dresses, at the State Theatre in 2008. The piece had a

honouring some of the best-known singers of the time:

second run at the National Arts Festival, followed by another

Dorothy Masuka, Thandie Klaasen and Abigail Kubeka.

successful run at the Market Theatre. This Naledi nominee

Kubeka, who grew up in Sophiatown, started her career

boasts a successful list of productions that have travelled

in 1957 at the age of 16. Iconic diva, Miriam Makeba noticed

to renowned festivals, such as the Edinburgh Festival and

this young singer and invited her to join her Skylarks

Afrovibes Festival UK and Amsterdam.

ensemble. She went on to understudy Makeba in the

Divas of Kofifi incorporates musical renditions from these

international jazz opera, King Kong, which was performed

three music legends, as well as footage from interviews.

across Europe to a wide audience. She has performed with

Stylistically, the musical runs on a fluid transition of present

jazz greats such as Abdulla Ibrahim and Percy Sledge and

time and memory through video, narration, re-enactment,

kept the genres and traditions of South African music alive –

live music and reminiscent storytelling, creating a layered

even after the demise of Sophiatown.

theatrical experience. CF

Creative Feel / August 2016 / 61

GLOBAL LINE-UP Standard Bank Joy of Jazz, now in its 19th year, reinforces its status as South Africa’s foremost jazz festival, and one of the best on the African continent, thanks to a stellar line-up of musicians from around the globe. American jazz giant Gerald Albright and South Africa’s Jonathan Butler join forces at the opening night of Standard Bank Joy of Jazz and kick-start South Africa’s premier jazz festival, which runs at the Sandton Convention Centre for three days from 15 to 17 September.

enowned American musician, Bob James will join the galaxy of stars at the event. James is a two-time GRAMMY Award-winning smooth jazz keyboardist, arranger and record producer. He is recognised as one of the original founders of smooth jazz and is renowned for the complexity of his arrangements and instrumentals.

The line-up includes GRAMMY Award winner Bill Champlin, who co-founded the legendary Bay Area

band, The Sons of Champlin but who is perhaps best known as a member of Chicago (for nearly three decades). He joins forces with four-time GRAMMY Award-winning vocalist, Deniece Williams; Brenda Russell (co-creator of the music and lyrics for the Tony Award-winning Broadway hit The Color Purple) and drummer Paul Peress in a not-to-be-missed collaboration called Sounds of Love. Other big international names in the jazz world appearing at this year’s Standard Bank Joy of Jazz include award-winning vocalist, José James; tenor saxophonist Houston Person, known for his legendary partnership with the great vocalist Etta Jones; and Canada-based vocalist Ranee Lee, popular for her ability to channel the grande dames of jazz. Ranee Lee began her early professional stage career as a dancer. From there, she moved on to playing drums and tenor saxophone with various touring groups in the United States and Canada. Ranee settled

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Deborah J. Carter

Creative Feel / August 2016 / 63

in Montreal, Quebec forty years ago, and her singing took over from past musical endeavours. Since then, she has become one of Canada’s most popular jazz vocalists and recording artists. Lee’s impressive discography is filled with masterworks: The Musical, Jazz on Broadway, being one of them, was a successful marriage of jazz standards and the music of Broadway. In 1994 and again in 1995, Lee received the Top Canadian Female Jazz Vocalist Award, presented by Jazz Report magazine. Her album I Thought About You was the first recording nominated for a Juno Award in the Best Mainstream Jazz category in 1995. You Must Believe In Swing, released in 1996 and featuring bassist Ray Brown and drummer Ed Thigpen, received rave reviews from critics and public alike, and charted in the influential Gavin Radio Charts in the USA. Another superb recording by Lee, Seasons Of Love, featuring Jeff Hamilton, John Clayton and special guest David Murray, was recorded at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles. This album features standards as well as two Ranee Lee originals and a Ranee Lee/Oliver Jones collaboration. South African greats billed for this year’s edition comprise of legends Barney Rachabane; Sibongile Khumalo; 2015 GRAMMY Award-winning flautist, Wouter Kellerman; multi-platinum selling and eleven-times South African Music Award (SAMA) winning, Afro-Soul vocalist, Lira; and perennial favourites Sipho ‘Hotstix’ Mabuse and Ringo. ‘South Africa’s first lady of song’, Sibongile Khumalo is a vocalist who personifies the rich and multi-sourced Southern African singing tradition. Khumalo is proficient in jazz, South African indigenous music and opera genres and has performed in operas and musicals worldwide, including the title role in Mzilikazi Khumalo’s Princess Magogo ka Dinuzulu, which toured to the HetMuzik Theatre in Amsterdam and the Ravinia Festival in Chicago. There are some exciting collaborations at this year’s Standard Bank Joy of Jazz. The Graz Roots Project celebrates past South African composers and musicians who gave future generations the sound of mbaqanga, mgqashiyo, maskandi and African jazz and features a powerhouse of musicians, including Billy Monama, Concord Nkabinde, McCoy Mrubata, Lwanda Gogwana, Mduduzi Mtshali, Paki Peloeole and Themba Mokoena. The inimitable percussionist and leader of the legendary Ritual Trio, Kahil El’Zabar brings an outfit that features tenor saxophonist, Teodross Avery and incredible vocalist, Dwight Trible, who makes his second return to the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz stage. El’Zabar is a proud example of the resilience of Chicago’s pro-Africanist, avant garde jazz

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Ranee Lee. PHOTO Pierre Arsenault

Nomfundo Xaluva

“Big international names include award-winning vocalist, José James; tenor saxophonist Houston Person, known for his legendary partnership with the great vocalist Etta Jones; and Canada-based vocalist Ranee Lee, popular for her ability to channel the grande dames of jazz” tradition. His music is as intense as it is swinging. Senegalese bass player and vocalist, Alune Wade brings the Havana-Paris-Dakar project to this year’s festival. The project is an eclectic celebration of the Afro-Cuban jazz tradition, with musical sojourns into Wade’s francophone Senegalese heritage. The project features Argentine piano maestro, Leonardo Genovese. US-born vocalist, Deborah J. Carter teams up with Paul van Kessel of the Netherlands for New York Round Midnight, which involves a rhythm section, horns and vocalists from the cream of the Dutch jazz scene to take listeners back to the heyday of jazz in the 1950s and ‘60s. It includes everybody’s favourite jazz hits, from ‘My Funny Valentine’ to ‘I Love You Porgy’. Deborah J. Carter has toured throughout Europe and Asia both with her trio, performing many of her own arrangements and compositions, or as a guest with various formations, from solo pianists to large orchestras. Currently the Professor of Jazz Vocals at the Musikene Music Conservatory in San Sebastian, Spain, Carter has also given master classes and workshops around the world. Carter has been described as ‘on of the most dynamic vocalists in the jazz scene’ and ‘absolutely top-class’. Trumpeter Feya Faku presents The Swiss Unit Project – featuring music from his album Le Ngoma (The Song) – with Swiss musicians Domenic Landolf (tenor sax, alto flute), Jean-Paul Brodbeck (piano), Fabian Gisler (acoustic bass) and Dominic Egli (drums). The concept includes tribute songs such as ‘Miss Benjamin’ (for Sathima Bee) and ‘Dirge’ (for Zim Ngqawana). ‘I created this concept to celebrate legends that

Creative Feel / August 2016 / 65

All images courtesy Total Exposure

“South African greats billed for this year’s edition comprise of legends Barney Rachabane; Sibongile Khumalo; 2015 GRAMMY Award-winning flautist, Wouter Kellerman; multi-platinum selling and eleven-times South African Music Award (SAMA) winning, Afro-Soul vocalist, Lira; and perennial favourites Sipho ‘Hotstix’ Mabuse and Ringo”

Sibongile Khumalo

came before me,’ says Feya Faku. ‘I am what I am because of them. My quest is to recognise them and keep them alive.’ The star-studded line-up will also feature the Standard Bank Young Artist for Jazz 2016, Siya Makuzeni; South African vocalist, pianist and composer, Nomfundo Xaluva; America’s Kendrick Scott; SAMA nominated singer/ songwriter, Max-Hoba; Israeli actress and singer, Ester Rada; 2014 Mbokodo Award winner for Woman in Jazz, Lindiwe Maxolo; Mozambiquan saxophonist, Moreira Chonguica; legendary South African vocalist, Judith Sephuma; DutchCameroonian singer/songwriter, Ntjam Rosie, accompanied by the Dutch All Stars Orchestra in a programme titled Jazz Roots; Johnny Mekoa’s Music Academy of Gauteng; and the Standard Bank National Youth Jazz Band. Nomfundo Xaluva is no ordinary musician. Her sultry voice and exquisite talent as a pianist is backed up by a master’s degree in Jazz Studies (Voice and Dissertation) and her humble, joyful attitude to both life and her art. This talent and effortless demeanour as an artist is powerfully conveyed on her delightful album, Kusile. Xaluva’s CV reads like a list of achievements most artists would covet. She has performed with legends such as Sibongile Khumalo, in a tribute show to Miriam Makeba, and she has graced the stage alongside international stars like Dianne Reeves. If androgyny was a musical word, it would fittingly describe the work of the 2016 Standard Bank Young Artist for Jazz, Siya Makuzeni. By the middle of her debut performance at the Standard Bank Jazz Festival at the National Arts Festival, it was clear that her creative source and vision is larger than just straight jazz. A vocalist and trombonist, Makuzeni’s music is electronic and acoustic, improvised and premeditated, traditional and ground breaking. Furthermore, her artistic pitch is as much steeped in jazz as it is in everything else that shapes her world. CF Standard Bank Joy of Jazz takes place at the Sandton Convention Centre for three days across four stages, Dinaledi, Conga, Mbira and Diphala, and 38 perfomances. Tickets are on sale at Computicket. A one-day pass costs R750 with a two-day pass at R1250. Discounted tickets are available for all Standard Bank card holders. There is a 10% discount when tickets are bought using a valid Standard Bank debit and cheque card. The discount is 15% when payment is made with a valid Standard Bank credit card at a Computicket outlet and online. The offer is limited to two tickets per person who meet the criteria. Terms and conditions apply.

Siya Makuzeni

Creative Feel / August 2016 / 67

A CONTEMPORARY TOUCH IN OLD NICE Welcome to a boutique hotel with a contemporary design in the Old Town of Nice, just a stoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s throw from the sea and Promenade des Anglais. The hotel was renovated by Jean-Michel Wilmotte who developed a playful relationship between materials and spaces. The marriage of wood and stone, mineral and organic, generates warm and luxurious atmospheres. Pebbles and polished stones - symbols of Beau Rivage feature as a recurrent theme throughout the hotel. Le Beau Rivage was one of the first seaside hotels in Nice in the continuation of Promenade des Anglais. At the time, it was a favourite of artists and intellectuals such as Matisse, Fitzgerald, Nietzsche or Chekhov.

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CDs & DVDs The latest releases to suit all tastes

Ingrid Jonker – Die Kind Is Nog Jonger

ngrid Jonker is one of South Africa’s most celebrated

white. My mother, Ingrid, was an astonishing woman who

and tragic poets. With the 50th commemoration of her

spoke for those who could not. As Nelson Mandela said

death, committing suicide by drowning, her daughter

about her: “She was both a poet and a South African. She

is spearheading an exciting music project to not only

was both an artist and a human being.” She was also my

reinvigorate her timeless words, but also preserving it via a

mother. She loved the sea, and she loved me. She could not

wide range of artists spanning five decades of musicians –

stand the mockery of us by a conservative segment of the

from legends to award winners. This release, a 36-artist music

community due to her feelings about the regime.

tribute to legendary South African poet, Ingrid Jonker, is set to change the perception of what Afrikaans music can be. Jonker’s passion, humanity, expression and grasp of language speaks volumes across many divides, with her

‘However, her compassion and talent with words transcends time, and race, and 50 years since her death, she is still loved. ‘In 2013, as a project from the heart, my husband Ernesto

words still as relevant and moving today. Nelson Mandela

took up an idea I had to release an album of my mother’s

read from her poem ‘Die Kind’ (The Child) and talked

poems. We had a wonderful response from the musicians.

about her during his address at the opening of the first

Paul Blom, from Flamedrop, took the project under his wing

democratically elected parliament on 24 May 1994. Black

and brought it to where it is today.’

Butterflies, an acclaimed international autobiographic film

This tribute is not limited to Afrikaans, with eleven of

on her life, was released in 2011 and, just recently, Vlam In

the 36 artist renditions being English translations. It is a

Die Sneeu (Flame In The Snow) was published. Vlam In Die

collaboration by a diverse range of local and international

Sneeu contains the love letters between Ingrid Jonker and

musicians, including veterans, established artists, imports,

acclaimed writer, André P. Brink.

expatriates, award winners and some newcomers; the

Jonker’s daughter, Simone and her husband, Ernesto

adaptations covering an invigorating scope of styles and

Garcia Marques of Sound Action, conceived the musical

moods, with a journey flowing through pop, rock, acoustic,

dedication to Jonker with this compilation of musical

blues, folk, ambient, avant garde, electronic, alternative, metal,

adaptations by a wide range of hand-picked South African and

punk and more.

international artists, titled Die Kind Is Nog Jonger (The Child Is

Beyond the historic, literary and artistic significance

Still Younger). The release was partially enabled by generous

of this anthology, it is also a capsule of current and past

supporters of an IndieGoGo crowd funding campaign.

musicians, spanning generations from the 1970s to present,

As Simone (Jonker) Garcia Marques explains, ‘I witnessed

fusing new music with timeless words from over half a

a time in history, when artists and writers were instrumental

century ago, melding into new creations that allow both to

in exposing the Apartheid Government’s dark deeds through

live on, transcending time constraints. CF

their discrimination and torture of people who were not

www.flamedrop.com/ingridjonker

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Book Reviews Recently published

The Way I See It: The Musings of a Black Woman in the Rainbow Nation ISBN 9781776090150 | By Lerato Tshabalala Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa Lerato Tshabalala first came to our attention in 2011 with her ‘Urban Miss’ column in the Sunday Times, and since then she has by turns entertained, exasperated, amused and confounded her fans and critics alike. Now, with her first book, she looks set to become the national institution she deserves to be. With her customary wit and keen insight into social, political and cultural affairs, Tshabalala shines a bright – and controversial – light on South African society and the quirky ways of the country. She is brutally honest about her experiences as a black South African in post-apartheid Mzansi, and no subject is too sacred for her to explore: annoying car guards, white-dominated corporate South Africa, cultural stereotypes, economic and racial inequality, and gender politics, among many other topics, come under her careful – and often laugh-out-loud – scrutiny. The Way I See It is written for people who are hungry for a book that is thoughtprovoking, funny, irreverent and truly South African all at the same time. It is light but full of depth: like a supermodel with an MBA! Lerato Tshabalala is a writer and editor with 15 years’ experience in print media. From starting out as a junior writer at Fairlady magazine, the proud Sowetan went on to edit South Africa’s largest lifestyle supplement, for the Sunday Times. In 2004 she won a Mondi award while working for Marie Claire South Africa, and in 2013 Mail & Guardian named her one of the 200 young people to watch in the Media category.

In The Maid’s Room | By Hagen Engler Publisher: Jacana Media | ISBN: 978-1431423767 How to be white when you’re no longer centre of attention? When you no longer even matter? How to be white when everyone’s patience runs out? These existential questions are addressed in Hagen Engler’s third novel, the satirical farce In the Maid’s Room. Disco Dave is a South African hipster on the Port Elizabeth social scene, such as it is. His dreams of media moguldom evaporate before his eyes as the scene becomes overwhelmingly blacker and his understanding of it more tenuous. Hardup for bucks, he moves into the maid’s room on his property and rents out the main house. Sizwe arrives and swiftly sets about taking over Disco’s life. He impregnates his ex-girlfriend Jazz, founds a rival scene magazine and slides into a job Disco had his eye on. The blacks are taking over! Disco finds a black girlfriend, but even that doesn’t stop it. Desperate for relevance, he resolves to get famous somehow. But who even needs white celebs any more? While his fellow non-blacks make a go of things through ignorance, hippy oblivion and gangsterism, Disco knows just enough to know he doesn’t know enough. As South Africa finally becomes a black country, he finds himself asking, what about me? In the Maid’s Room is a scruffy, hilarious, outrageous shambles of an episodic novel embedded in the coastal city of Port Elizabeth, that trendsetting bellwether of national change. This is about the surfer and stoner culture of the Bay,but also about the slow ignominious death of white entitlement.

Creative Feel / August 2016 / 73

encore Nthabi Taukobong is the Founding Member and Managing Director of Ditau Interiors, an interior design consultation company based in Johannesburg, South Africa that provides an exclusive design service to a niche Clientele. Ditau Interiors creates beautiful interiors of distinction and sophistication for high-end residential and leisure clients who seek uncompromising quality and elegance that reflects their luxury lifestyle and unique, individual taste.

Name three artworks that you love and why.

How have the arts industries in South Africa changed over

A couple of years ago, I had a project that I went to install in

the last ten years?

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. On my final day, I had the pleasure of

Art and the process thereof has become more personal and

roaming local arts and crafts markets. I fell in love with the

absolutely self-expressive. What we deemed a work of art

local artwork and its depiction of religious/nativity scenes

ten years ago, has been totally transformed to anything and

using African figures. It completely took me by surprise but at

everything; inclusive and exclusive. Art is what you decide as the

the same time was so much more relatable – I was fascinated

individual to experience it to be and that is evident right here at

by a Black Jesus and his equally darker skinned disciples. My

home. With art comes a lot of freedom.

son at that stage had just reached an extremely curious age of trying to understand why he did not look like Jesus, and I went

Name one thing you think would improve the arts and

a bit overboard buying up all the different scenes to show him

culture industry in South Africa.

back home. My favourite piece being an artwork depicting a

Greater exposure to an international audience. Corporates to get

Black Mother Mary and a chubby baby Jesus in her arms – that

more behind artists and for the arts to be a recognised business.

is hung proudly in my son’s bedroom. I also loved the pencil sketches showing various, absolutely striking Ethiopian women

What is your most treasured possession?

with their natural hair done up in these gorgeous and unique,

I don’t possess anything, but my greatest treasure is my son. My

braided hairstyles. I too had been going through a moment of

earth angel.

self-discovery, needing to identify more with my inner AfricanGoddess, and these regal prints took me there. For me, if a work

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

of art (in whatever form) can stir up a personal and an emotional

Giving up on your dreams and living an average existence

response from its audience – positive or negative – it has

undeserving of your true, authentic self.

succeeded in its intention. What is it that makes you happy? Name one artist you would love to meet.

Reading while lounging on my favourite sofa in my office,

I am discovering art as I go.

enjoying the afternoon sun – sheer bliss. I am sure it’s a small slice of heaven.

What are you reading at the moment? Wild by Cheryl Strayed and The Road less Travelled by M. Scott Peck.

What projects will you be busy with during 2016 and into 2017?

What is in your car’s CD player?

I have reached a stage in my life and career where I am working

My son’s seventh birthday party compilation of songs! He

on defining my own design style and creating an African Lifestyle

listens to the CD every chance he has! Most of the time, when I

brand around that – which will be available through my online

am in the car, I am tuned in to the radio and making my peace

e’Boutique. I will be busy for the year, sourcing, creating and

with the 90% local content…

curating the look and feel of the range.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would

Name one goal you would like to achieve in the next

it be?

twelve months.

I want to be more fearless in my decision making and take

To set up an African décor and lifestyle brand, made and sourced

more risks.

in Africa, available throughout the world. CF