DESIGN SNIPPETS
Not quite the garden variety
Wheelbarrows have a rich conceptual history in South Africa where they are the preferred mode of transport for shebeen stock; used to carry infants and the sick to clinics; and are a popular toy for kids of all ages and can double up as hammocks for municipal workers taking a break.
The Carry Me Away exhibition at the Corner Café in Durban saw 10 local artists and designers celebrate the wheelbarrow. The rollcall included Modern Museum's Jean-Paul Brouard, Jenna-Leah Shone and Richard Phipson; Disturbance Design's Christian Mugnai and Trevor Paul; Iron Fist's Lyle Wessels; independents Sarah Holloway, Ross Turpin and George Halloway - whose brainchild the exhibition was; and myself.
The idea of the show was to take "usable items" and decorate them outside in the courtyard to complement the Corner Café's garden. Said Halloway: "The exhibition happened in my head the first time I sat on the back 'deck' of the Corner Café. I saw a bunch of altered garden utensils displayed against the back wall. Then, as I left and drove down Frere Road, I found a guy selling wheelbarrows at his front gate and I bought three. Three grew to 10 and it became an exhibition with some great artists buying in to my idea."
Everyone involved brought a unique idea to the wheelbarrow shape. Mugnai turned his into a lightbox, Phipson made a bookshelf with a clever slogan and Brouard created a cheeky love nest. In turn, inspired by a recent series of designs I did for Revolution Skateboards, I converted the outside shell of my wheelbarrow into a canvas.
The exhibition was very successful in taking art out of a gallery and to the man in the street - or shall I say garden - giving art a different meaning. Future exhibitions with artists designing other garden tools such as spades or saws are also planned. - Wesley van Eeden
More info: www.hopeproject.co.za
United by moving images
Visionary documentary filmmaker Jehane Noujaim brings her inspiring wish of changing the world through the power of film to life in Pangea Day on May 10. Aiming to tap into the power of film to strengthen tolerance and compassion, Pangea Day will unite millions of people from all over the world in a shared experience. Submissions for screening will be accepted until February 15, 2008. Visit www.pangeaday.org.
Fear of the Known
NewMusicSA is proud to present their second Unyazi festival, Fear of the Known, a festival of "extreme listening". Curated by James Webb, the concert and conference will be hosted at the University of Stellenbosch on March 14 and 15, and at the University of the Witwatersrand on March 16. Participating artists include Asmus Tietchens, Brandon LaBelle, Brendon Bussy, Eric LaCasa, Garth Erasmus, Jako Maron, James Sey, James Webb, Jason Kahn, Julian Jonker, Lawrence English, Philip Samartzis, the POW Ensemble, Marc Behrens, Mark Schreiber, Righard Kapp, Stacy Hardy, Sudden Infant, the Kemus Ensemble, Ulrich Süsse and Warrick Sony. Website: www.myspace.com/unyazi
The world cup of the TV industry
Jo'burg will be hosting the International Public Television (INPUT) organisation's annual showcase - the World Cup of the TV industry - at the Sandton Convention Centre from May 4 to 10. INPUT has been international television's most important and influential annual screening conference for 30 years. This is the second time that this event is being held in Africa and 1 500 of the world's top public television executives, commissioning editors, producers and filmmakers from 50 countries are expected. Website: www.input2008.org.za
Carrol Boyes call for entries
Carrol Boyes Functional Art (CBFA) has announced the theme for the Metal 2008 New Designer Search: "Frame". This refers to a structure that can contain or border any article of beauty such as a mirror, an artwork, an image, an item of jewellery or the like. The work should fuse three key elements: functionality, manufacturing potential and aesthetics.
"A frame may hold a special memory, reflect a shared moment in time or simply contain a gift from someone close. I would like to encourage entrants to be inspired by these moments when designing and creating their prototypes so that these may reflect their uniqueness," said Boyes herself.
Entries officially open on March 1. No experience or design qualification is necessary to enter. Entrants have to design a frame, make a 3D example and submit it along with a completed entry form, a copy of their ID and a one-page CV. For more information and the entry form, visit http://metal.carrolboyes.co.za.
The green pink party
Seeking to return to its artistic roots, the Mother City Queer Project appointed designer Heath Nash as creative director for 2007. Continuing the ethos of his famed Other People's Rubbish collection, Nash approached the party with a "reuse and recycle" attitude. Nash's décor was made using repurposed waste materials that could also be separated for post-party recycling.
However, the impetus spilled over to the rest of the event. Bio-degradable products were used, party patrons were encouraged to "dispose" of their costumes in a used-costume bin destined for recycling, and a prize was awarded to the best costume made out of recycled materials. Avoiding air flight, a party train also transported a large contingent of supporters between Jo'burg and Cape Town.
"It's the first step towards a green event. You know, it's very hard to put on a green event, there's a whole lot of stuff and time that is involved. Next year we could take it further," said Nash.
Creative Company Conference
Design Indaba has a new sister company in Europe called the Creative Company Conference (CCC). Distinct from Design Indaba, which celebrates the creative professional, the CCC honours innovative business leaders and companies that place innovation, creativity and design as central to their strategy.
The CCC heralds the primacy and potency of innovation and creativity in business. Celebrating thought leaders in an annual in Amsterdam, ideas, experience and best practice will be shared and inspiration sparked.
Scheduled for April 1 at Amsterdam's spectacular Muziekgebouw, the CCC has secured eight leading innovators from four continents for its inaugural event. These include: Arkadi Kuhlmann - chairman, president and CEO of the world's largest internet bank, ING Direct; Bill Moggridge - founder of IDEO; Robert Brozin - founder of Nando's; Richard Reed - co-founder of innocent drinks; Ivy Ross - chief creative officer and vice-president of Disney; Carlos Miele - fashion entrepreneur and founder of Carlos Miele Ltd; and John Howkins - chairman of ITR Consultants and responsible for coining the term "creative economy".
Visit www.creativecompanyconference.com for more information.
Only you can prevent forest fires
Table Mountain and its forests are destroyed every summer by raging wild fires. Some are natural but many start with a human spark of stupidity or carelessness. Unfortunately the Table Mountain fire department is struggling with a lack of funding and doesn't have the resources to deal with the situation.
Warren Lewis and myself, from creative consultancy, Animal Farm, brewed a clever idea to highlight the plight of the already stretched Fire Department.
The Carpenter's Shop, an NGO setup to teach woodwork skills to the homeless and unemployed, was commissioned to carve 65 fire extinguishers from the invasive alien trees that had been cleared from the Table Mountain National Park. These non-indigenous trees destabilise the environment by absorbing all the water, causing major erosion, sucking up all the light and, worst of all, spreading their seed when they burn, causing even worse seasons in years to come.
The extinguishers were mounted on alien trees throughout the Table Mountain National Park, with a focus on fire hot spots, picnic areas and major walking trails. The purpose was to explain that it is almost impossible to stop a wild fire once it has started. The only way to stop the fires is to prevent them. The instructions on the label are all about how people can prevent fires.
Why didn't we rather install real working fire extinguishers? Firstly, they would get stolen before you could say "Table Mountain National Park," but more seriously, using a fire extinguisher to try put out a wild fire would be about as effective as using a wooden one.
The project was funded by Cape Union Mart, an outdoor clothing manufacturer, and the extinguishers were installed by Chubb Fire, the major fire extinguisher company in Cape Town. - Porky Hefer
Winter fashion for cool cats
For a seriously chic preview of the chilly season from SA's top designers, head down to the Sanlam SA Fashion Week Winter 08/09 Collections from 14 to 15 March, at Museum Africa in Johannesburg. With winter being a shorter season in South Africa, new and established designers such as Lunar, Abigail Betz, Mantsho and Story, will focus on capsule collections of strong key pieces that bear their distinct signature. The annual Arts and Culture Fashion Seminar will also run concurrently with the event, from March 14 to 16.
Max normal for kids
Unlike typical celebrity forays into clothing lines or perfumes, South Africa's avant-garde rapper Max Normal has turned his creative touch to an exclusive range of 36 handmade animal toys and a book to match. Max Normal Likes Animals is a full-colour, 32-page hardcover picture book, handwritten and drawn by Max Normal. It features his favourite South African animals, such as the nagapie ("everyone knows not to mess with nagapie"), the giraffe (whose special powers include stopping arguments "just by walking by") and the lion (who just wants everything "to be ok").
Hani Rashid and the sun king
The LQ chandelier, designed by Hani Rashid, is the first to be launched in the new Zumtobel Lighteriors Avantgarde Collection. LQ is the New York architect's humorous reference to Louis Quatorze, the "Sun King", and a modern interpretation of the opulent crystal chandeliers o f the 18th and 19th centuries, but without using crystal, glass or candles. The basic unit, which can be bundled in different sized groups, is a pendant luminaire consisting of a LED module and four chrome-plated light-directing components. Optics fan out light in intriguing interplays of reflected light, yet the "source" - the LED - cannot be seen.
Designers through the looking glass
French product designer Matali Crasset is just one of the designers who contributed to Domestic's Narcisse collection of artists' mirrors. Besides the associations of self-portraiture, the collection sought to free the mirror from its traditional frame and codes. "Other than the qualities linked to its reflective functions, the key aspect of the mirror resides generally in the quality, design and workmanship of its frame," stated Domestic. Other participants included 5.5 Designers, Geneviève Gauckler, Ich&Kar, Rolito, Tado, Antoine+Manuel, Pierre Marie and Ana Mir+Emili Padrós.
Top architecture exhibition in Cape Town
After successful showings in Berlin, São Paulo, Johannesburg and Durban, the 2007 DaimlerChrysler Award for South African Architecture exhibition will be on show in Cape Town until March 30, at the Iziko National Gallery. The exhibition features work by winner Heinrich Wolff, as well as fellow nominees Archilab, Heather Dodd, Andy Horn, Ndabo Langa, Henning Rassmuss and Chris Wilkinson. The exhibition then returns to Germany for a final showing at the University of Bayreuth, Germany, from April 25 to August 31.
Let them eat cake!
Fabrico Próprio sees three renowned Portuguese designers - Rita João, Pedro Ferreira and Frederico Duarte - picking up their pens to celebrate their country's heritage of cakes. The title means "own production" and is a term used by most cafés and cake shops as a warrant of freshness and quality, but also of the uniqueness and prestige of the baked goods they sell. "We see [the cakes] as design objects in their own right, a result of the project-based process that characterises this discipline, where form, ingredients, materials, method, production tools and machinery come together to originate a final product," say the authors.
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