Katherine-Mary Pichulik of PICHULIK is blogging exclusively for VISI as she embarks on a two-month artist residency in magical Italy.

I awoke on Saturday morning to the grumbles of an eminent thunderstorm. After the previous day’s heat the air in the villa was heavy and humid, and emotions were on edge. As the rain poured down, the mist rolled in over the Tuscan landscape and the pressure that had built up was released.

It is my last weekend here at Villa Lena, the final days of my two-month residency at the large two-storey pink villa with a stable as my studio, the sounds of owls asleep at night and the happy chatter of Italian voices when I wake. It is a life that I know will seem like a dream once I get back to my Cape Town routine.

This isolated estate seduced me into a new routine of 10pm dinners and working until late in my studio; of endless swims in the pool and finding a reason to drink wine at every meal. Nature is in an endless dance with the villa and those of us who have briefly lived here.

I have become accustomed to seeing a fox creep out of the kitchen when I arrive at my quarters after dinner, or being greeted by long-tailed green lizards and accompanied by horse flies during my daily walk along the dirt road.

The time in Italy has done something to me. It brought about a slow creeping-in-of-a-feeling, of getting to know myself again. With the demands of being creative as a business, one can often get so busy, so caught up in the numbers and the strategy, that you lose sight of the joy of making and the simple satisfaction of feeling your hands working with materials.

We held an “open studio” on Wednesday evening and each artist showed what he or she had created while at the villa. I have completed what I feel will be PICHULIK’s Spring/Summer 2016 range, which will be released in September, as well as one or two pieces of furniture shown above.

I also held a workshop for artists, children and guests. It was an hour’s experimental playtime in which we were led by the materials and explored the notions of collaboration, sharing and touch. I assembled a trousseau of threads, ropes, beads and twine and invited participants to bring an object they found at the villa. We then sat together and crafted by attaching the objects to one another. The final result was secondary to the experience.

The villa is like a village in itself where the guests, artists and staff engage and share experiences on a daily basis. It dawned on me that I had sat down for dinner with my fellow residents 55 times.

I thought of the special shared interactions I experience, among which had been a morning meditating with 20-year-old elfin Flo Morrissey, who has just released her first album, Tomorrow Will Be Beautiful (listen here). Also, listening to the wise words of Brazilian designer Barbara Casasola on design, and of curator Simon Njami who got me thinking about vocational titles such as designer and curator and how they can limit enjoyment and self-expression.

I also jotted down a few random quotes on food:

“Simplicity is what every Italian stresses about cooking.”

“Pesto is for pasta. That’s it.”

“Do not overheat your olive oil, as it removes all the flavour.”

“Add salt to the water only when it is boiling. Adding it before will just raise the boiling temperature.”

And one on beauty: “The trick of French women’s beauty is adding magnesium to a warm drink before bed.”

Click here if you missed Katherine-Mary’s first blog from Villa Lena or her second blog about travelling around the magical city of Florence. Her third blog introduces you to the residents of Villa Lena – don’t miss it!

Follow Katherine’s journey on Twitter (@Pichulik) on Instagram (@pichulikafrika) and on Facebook. You can also visit pichulik.com for more info.

The post Katherine-Mary Pichulik For VISI: Farewell To Villa Lena appeared first on Visi.

WORDS Katherine-Mary Pichulik IMAGES courtesy of Adam Frezza and Terri Chiao, Soft Baroque, Mark Borthwick and Sarah Burwash

I am sure that the idea of a group of artists/designers staying at a villa outside Florence conjures up all sorts of images of Dionysian hedonism and very little work. Although this may be true of some art residencies, it is not the case at our pink villa.

Yes, there have been topless dips, twerking classes and experimental humming sessions on balconies, but each artist/designer selected by the foundation is deeply committed and connected to their practice. What has amazed me most is seeing how each member of our group’s life as an artist or designer is not separate from their way of experiencing the world. Everyone engages with their medium and life with the same playfulness, as if making art and living are a continuum of experiments.

While each uses different materials and is concerned with different things, there are a few elements that unite them too:

• The aesthetics of chance and capturing a fleeting moment
• Play, and specifically a humorous interplay of materials and form
• The ability to juxtapose function and material

I feel there is something quite poetic between these modalities and the function of an art residency, as we, in the course of two months, are “incubated,” sharing our artistry and play and documenting this special time.

Meet my fellow residents:

Adam Frezza and Terri Chiao

These two Brooklyn artists radiate joy. I have spent endless hours dancing and humming with them (and hugging them).

With their “belief that the world of the imaginary is as ‘real’ as the natural world,” they create bright immersive environments of paper, paint, wood and plaster. Exuberant plant forms, shapely lumps, sculptural glyphs and odd huts co-mingle in parallel worlds of play and rigor. With the primitive optimism of a child and the meticulous focus of a horticulturist, they uncover the wondrous, the magical, and the humorous in the everyday.

(video via Adam Frezza & Terri Chiao on Vimeo)

Soft Baroque

London-based artists Saša Stucin and Nicholas Gardner are perhaps the most particular of the residents. With their very clear design sensibilities that include Sasa’s head-to-toe Miyake Pleats Please ensembles and Nic’s LED installed signature peak cap, they make for a lot of informative discussions over Spritz and swims in the pool.

Soft Baroque ‘focuses on creating work with conflicting functions and imagery, without abandoning beauty or consumer logic. They are keen to blur the boundaries between acceptable furniture typologies and conceptual representative objects.’

Mark Borthwick

Mark is a magical person. The ephemeral nature of his imagery reverberates in his experimental music and bleeds into his meditative videos.

Sarah Burwash

Sarah is pensive and sensitive. She has the best capsule wardrobe in the exact tones of her watercolours. We have bonded over rolling cigarettes and chasing fireflies late at night. Her work “crosses drawing, painting, animation, ceramics and installation”.

(video via sarah burwash on Vimeo)

Click here if you missed Katherine-Mary’s first blog from Villa Lena or her second blog about travelling around the magical city of Florence.

Follow Katherine’s journey on Twitter (@Pichulik) on Instagram (@pichulikafrika) and on Facebook. You can also visit pichulik.com for more info.

The post Katherine-Mary Pichulik For VISI: The Residents of Villa Lena appeared first on Visi.

WORDS Katherine-Mary Pichulik IMAGES Coke Bartrina

Even as a young girl, I’ve been inspired by Italy. It began when I studied Art History and was reinforced when I saw the 1996 coming-of-age film Stealing Beauty by Bernardo Bertolucci in my teens.

In my mind, Italy represented aspiration, imagination and the iconic heroines of Italian cinema who came to manifest beauty and womanhood to me.

PICHULIK’s Autumn/Winter 2015 collection, Pietra Terra, which was released in April, was inspired by the scents and heritage of Santa Maria Novella – the world’s oldest apothecary. They anticipated my journey to Italy to participate in a two-month art residency at the famous Villa Lena, a sprawling 19^th century villa in the Tuscan countryside between Florence and Sienna.

A residency there allows multidisciplinary artists and creatives to work in its studios and produce a body of work or actualise a project while staying in the beautiful pink villa. The plethora of interesting guests from Europe and the States who come to stay at the hotel on the property adds to the creative atmosphere and turns it into a melting pot for collaborations, experiences and networking – all core values that are close to my heart.

Over the next four weeks, I will be introducing you to the other resident artists and designers, the incredible archive of designer objects that displayed at the Villa Lena Hotel, including a mix of Milanese Memphis design and contemporary works by Villa Lena alumni.

In the evenings, we enjoy a three-course meal by the resident chef with vegetables and herbs from the vegetable garden, so expect to see a recipe or two coming your way, sent with love and plenty of passion.

For now, I wanted to share with you my favourite Villa Lena/Italian drink. Although you cannot join me in this adventure, this will give you a taste:

Mark Borthwick’s Lena Lavane

Ingredients:

• 50ml gin
• Fresh lavender
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• Thinly sliced ginger
• Dash of honey
• Crushed ice
• Tonic water
• Lemon rind and lavender to serve

Method:

Combine the gin, lavender, lemon juice, ginger and honey in a cocktail shaker and shake for 10 seconds. Pour onto crushed ice and add tonic water to taste. Garnish with lemon rind pierced with a twig of lavender.

I will be making several trips to nearby cities and villages and will record the details to inform the PICHULIK Spring/Summer 16 collection – and create “city guides” based on locals’ suggestions. Next week, I will report on my weekend in Florence where I will be staying with a family just off the Ponte Vecchio.

Meanwhile, please enjoy these photos of the villa.

Arrivederci!

Follow Katherine’s journey on Twitter (@Pichulik) on Instagram (@pichulikafrika) and on Facebook. You can also visit pichulik.com for more info.

The post Katherine-Mary Pichulik For VISI: Villa Lena appeared first on Visi.