Art Safari at Molori

WORDS Cheri Morris

Molori Safari gets new interiors by Hesse Kleinloog Studio, including an expanded art collection from Ichikowitz Heritage Art Collection and custom rugs by creative studio Jana+Koos featuring the works of Athi-Patra Ruga, Maja Marx and Nabeeha Mohamed, to name a few.

Hesse Kleinloog Studio brought a decor narrative that breaks from the typical aesthetics expected from a game lodge: anticipated luxury grounded by feel-good comfort and emboldened by a multilateral dialogue between art and texture. As walls and surfaces were dedicated to exhibition space, the designers focused on creative ideas for floor coverings that would complement the organic architectural structure.

Designer Koos Groenewald of creative studio Jana+Koos was commissioned to dream a rug that echoed the space’s curved walls. What followed was the ‘the rug project‘ – a series of collaborations with some of South Africa’s most provocative contemporary artists, including the likes of Cameron Platter and Jody Paulsen. The various artist’ visual references were digitised by Jana+Koos and then rendered by master craftsmen at Durban-based Brabetz Carpet Mill into three-dimensional, textured ‘works of art’.

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Headline works in the space include the Lady Skollie, Edoardo Villa, Deborah Bell and Norman Catherine, as specially selected from the private Ichikowitz Heritage Art Collection – one of the largest collections of its kind, featuring South African and African artists dating back as far as the 1950s.

Each work speaks to the emotional climate of Africa’s transformation: Four Edoardo Villa sculptures – which came to South Africa from Italy in 1942 – tell of Edoardo’s passionate creation of African identity, while his red and silver tubular steel ‘Abstract Head’ commands focus at the main bar.

Deborah Bell’s bronze ‘Chariot’ is a prime example of her fascination with ancient civilisations and excavated artefacts. Inside, miniature works and sculpture by Norman Catherine detail the Metsi lounge. Sculptor Angus Taylor’s ‘Bearing your Becoming’ stands strikingly rendered in bronze, malachite and prasiolite.

The gin and whiskey bar showcases Cole & Son X Ardmore Studios’s ‘Savuti’ wallpaper, while Lady Skollie’s ‘Kind of, sort of united we stand: the ups and downs of competitive sisterhood’ serves to spark timely debates around gender, sex and the politics of lust.

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