Art History

n.

the academic study of the history & development of painting, sculpture, & the other visual arts.

"Art History" Our SS19 collection, Art History, is about piecing together South Africa’s contrasting cultural landscape in interesting ways. Art is such a pro-active way of dealing with pain & trauma, which we as South African’s know quite a bit of. I found it quite beautiful that most of the major art movements stemmed from times of suffering & war, & you don’t have to look far to see that we are in a time of socio-political & economic upheaval. But hope has always been something that has forged us on, & personally, for my family & I, that sense of hope has been through the church, which you will notice cues of in the collection. Strong colour & prints, a negotiation between concealing & revealing & ecclesiastic shapes form the basis of our SS19 offering.

One of my favourite pieces from this collection is the Nightmare Journal Set. When I was a child, I used to have terrible nightmares & my mother would always tell me to externalize those nightmares by writing them down. One traumatic one was a hill I first thought was burnt trees but as I walked closer to it, it was the charred corpses of horses, mangled together. I recently came across this journal & printed it on dutchess satin, which was frayed on the edges to give the illusion of paper. This was further pleated, transforming an otherwise devastating dream into a beautiful reality. Like art does. 

Key References:
Mary Sibande, Athi-Ruga Patra, Surrealism,  

Recommended Reading:
1. SOUTH AFRICAN ART NOW by Sue Williamson, Harper Design (2009)
2. TSHEPANG by Lara Foot Newtown, Oberon Books (2004)