Flatpack fab

The perfect conversation piece and antipoaching statement, this adorable minimalistic StratFlex Rhino by Al Stratford of Wintec Innovation was inspired by the Eames Elephant. It comes as a flatpack, made from rubber and Finnish plywood, and stands approximately 40cm tall when assembled. Whether used as a drinks table, pedestal or ornament, the head and tail can be flexed at different angles, giving the animal a delightful personality. 

wintecinnovation.co.za

Fabric find

Since the single-horned creatures no longer grace our R10 notes, we were thrilled to clap eyes on this rhino fabric from Design Team’s African Archive collection. Made using a freehand silkscreen, the material comes in various vibrant colour combin­ations, so we can support the cause in style.

012 653 1973, designteamfabrics.co.za

Fast fact

Archaeological evidence attests to the existence of rhinos in ancient China. No more. They were hunted for their horn, which was used to make cups because it was believed to fizz when it came into contact with poison.

Check out VISI’s online rhino flash mob here.

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Art and intrigue go hand in hand, and there is nothing like the element of exclusivity to get us excited. A secret art exhibition on Thursday 27 March 2014 in Cape Town? We’re there!

No Man’s Art Gallery is landing in Cape Town this month. A pop-up gallery on a world tour, it has already travelled to Shanghai, Copenhagen, Paris, Mumbai, Hamburg and Amsterdam, showcasing the video art, photography, painting, drawing and sculpture of young, mostly unknown, local artists – skyrocketing their careers forward into the international art market. 

The concept is pretty ingenious: every few months, the gallery moves to a new location, building everything from its network of artists and buyers to location and media hype. Armed only with the highlights from the exhibition in the previous country, it’s had great success picking up the work of young artists who might ordinarily struggle to find a market for their work at home, and connecting them with an international crowd of art lovers in exciting and unconventional locations. 

As you might have guessed, the name “No Man’s Art Gallery” refers to no-man’s-land, an area between countries that has no laws and no set boundaries. “We don’t regard conventions and territorial boundaries to be restrictions. We either ignore them wilfully or play with them until they work in our favour. It keeps us inno-vative and adventurous and allows us to do business in every country and culture,” the curators explain.

In the Cape Town edition, visitors will be exposed to emerging local artists alongside their peers from all six previous destinations. The exhibition will be in town for a very limited time at a secret location. Entrance is free but only if your name is on the guest list. 

To receive an invitation and the address, sign up on nomansart.com.

The No Man’s Art Gallery is featured in VISI’s WILD DESIGN issue, now on shelves.

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Africa’s first international design fair, Guild runs until Sunday 9 March in Cape Town. Make sure to get down there and be part of history in the making. For one thing, there’s the most desirable bicycle in South Africa on show.

The Vicious Cycle is no ordinary single-gear bike, certainly not the sort popular with city hipsters, although we’re pretty sure any self-respecting hipster would give their inked left leg to call one of these their own. After all, there are only 10.

This beauty is a collaboration between Duncan MacIntyre and Anton Dekker, facilitated by Gavin Rooke’s Dutchmann project that connects master craftsmen with contemporary designers and artists (you’ll recall its Delft surfboards and Porsche 911). Although retired, Duncan is regarded as South Africa’s most accomplished frame builder, with his work dating back to the 1970s, including his competitive sport-oriented Gemini brand. Anton is a specialist in producing bespoke components for brands such as Porsche, Lamborghini and Ferrari.

The Vicious Cycle is hand-built, using a frame designed by Duncan, which was used by track cyclist Malcolm Cochrane in the Track Cycling World Championships in Australia in 2009. After being stripped, coppered and lacquered, the frame was rebuilt using a range of classic and contemporary parts, including components from well-known quality brands such as 3T, Campagnolo, Vredenstein, Cinelli and Brooks. 

Round, but maybe not so bad-tempered after all.

R47 500, dutchmann.co.za

Think bike in 2014

Cape Town Bicycle Map. These nifty maps of Cape Town and the Winelands show urban cycling routes, bicycle parking, lanes and other commuter info. There’s even a mobile app, capetownbicyclemap.co.za

Active Mobility. This World Design Capital 2014 project is a collaboration between several organisations encouraging us to jump on our bicycles and cocreate a green city. 9 March to 16 May, wdccapetown2014.com

The 37th Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour. Although entries have closed, you can still join a charity ride or replace a rider. For the rest, find a pretty perching spot and cheer from the sidelines. 9 March, cycletour.co.za

The World Naked Bike Ride Cape Town. A day before the Argus, this annual ride encourages participants to be “as bare as you dare” in the name of environmental issues. 8 March, wnbrcapetown.weebly.com

Bicycle portraits: We asked Sean O’Toole, Phillipa Green, Anthea Moys, Isabeau Joubert, Justin Fiske, Gareth O’Brien, Aidan Bennets, Luke Pedersen and James Lennard what they love about two-wheeling. Read what they had to say here.

The Vicious Cycle is featured in VISI’s WILD DESIGN issue, now on shelves.

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Africa’s enduring underground culture of “make a plan” has resulted in some inadvertent – and pretty awesome – creativity. A seat made of tyres, a bucket turned into a geyser, a chair from a shopping trolley, a jerrycan stereo… In Africa, sometimes the most unlikely materials lead to inspiring enterprise. 

This is what the Yenza: Make It! project is celebrating during the World Design Capital 2014 – self-made objects, sourced from homes in some of Cape Town’s informal settlements, which prioritise function over style and celebrate the sheer human ingenuity that is born of basic need.

Speaking of style, is there anything more endearing than homemade stuff? In Africa, DIY is not so much a hipster ideal as a basic means of getting by. Celebrating the rebellious craftiness of the informal design movement, the term “bushpunk” has been coined to describe these eclectic, colourful objects. Catch some of these creations at the Design Indaba Expo from Friday 28 February to Sunday 2 March.

yenzamake.tumblr.com.

Yenza is featured in VISI’s WILD DESIGN issue, now on shelves.

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The Cécile & Boyd Foundation has unveiled a pop-up shipping container installation showing the power of colour and texture in creating inspiring classrooms for disadvantaged children. An official World Design Capital project, the installation can be viewed at the Prestwich Memorial until mid March.

It’s one thing to have a first-rate interior-design firm whose landmark projects are globally renowned. It’s quite another when this firm’s singular talents are also directed at helping disadvantaged communities. Cécile & Boyd – whom many South Africans will recognise as the award-winning team that designs the Singita lodges – established its charitable foundation back in 2011. Since then, it has been engaged in ongoing nonprofit work, mainly for disadvantaged schools and crèches.  

The Cécile & Boyd Foundation is led by designer Mia van Wyk, who has brought the team’s knowledge and product-design experience to bear on a number of humanitarian projects. Working in collaboration with organisations like Rock Girl and the Amy Biehl Foundation, the foundation has thus far uplifted the likes of Siyazingisa Primary School in Gugulethu and Little Feet Crèche in Hout Bay, and installed library containers at Nomlinganiselo Primary School in Langa and at Blikkiesdorp in Delft, and both a library and an art room at Red River Primary School in Manenberg. 

What links the foundation’s various activities is the use of colour. Choosing to focus on the psychological and therapeutic qualities of colour, Cécile & Boyd’s plan is to “uplift children through the creation of ‘safe’ spaces with the hope of re-engaging these youngsters in their schools and society”. 

We love that Cécile & Boyd’s charitable projects are as remarkable as their high-end spaces, illustrating the power of design and its ability to uplift whomever engages with the space. Sharing the love as an official WDC2014 project, the company is creating a container exhibition that showcases the elements of texture and colour, as used by the foundation. The container will pop up at related events during 2014.  

cecileandboyd.co.za, cecileandboydfoundation.blogspot.com

The Cécile & Boyd Foundation is featured in VISI’s WILD DESIGN issue, now on shelves.

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As VISI readers already know, our new WILD DESIGN issue is an official World Design Capital 2014 project and celebrates the spectacular views, amazing architecture, wildest decor and most ingenious design of our beloved country and continent. LOVE LIVING IN AFRICA the cover brandishes proudly, of which there are four different versions to choose from.

VISI asked to hear from you, our readers, about why you LOVE LIVING IN AFRICA and which of the four covers is your favourite. You could win by simply downloading the Vine app to your Smartphone and shooting a six-second video clip showing and/or telling us about your passion for living on our continent, using your copy of the latest edition of VISI magazine. Post it to Vine and make sure to tag it with #VISIvine.

The deadline was noon on Wednesday 19 February 2014. Even if you didn’t enter, you could make sure to vote for your favourite below by sharing it on Facebook or Twitter.

We added together the number of Vine-likes, Revines, Retweets and Facebook-shares, as shown in the stats below the Vine. The person with the most likes and shares wins a coveted three-day ticket to the Design Indaba Conference, worth R7 450 – a fantastic opportunity for complete re-inspiration with speakers such as architect Thomas Heatherwick and product designer Naoto Fukusawa.

The winner of the grand prize of a Design Indaba Conference ticket is… Ute Faure from Green Elephant Collective. However, we loved Rucita Vassen’s entry so much, we’re giving her and her accomplices each a year’s subscription to VISI magazine.

From Friday 28 February to Sunday 2 March, VISI will be exhibiting at the oldest showcase of proudly authentic South African design, the Design Indaba Expo. The Vine videos will play on a screen courtesy of Cow Africa on our expo stand – a passionate collaborative shout-out to our country’s insuppressible creativity and beauty! 

Find our more about Vine here and follow VISIvine here.

Buy the WILD DESIGN issue of VISI magazine in stores now.

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Artist Jody Paulsen has graduated from Michaelis with such a clashtastic body of work that VISI just had to put it on our WILD DESIGN cover, and print four different versions of the cover to boot. We went to visit him in his studio to find out what makes him tick.

Bananas and hotdogs and leopard skin and polka dots and eyeballs and lettering… all meticulously cut out by hand from felt, and glued together to make a clashtastic visual onslaught that has the VISI team salivating. Scratching a little deeper, however, it is artist Jody Paulsen’s delicate craftsmanship and nods to popular culture that keep us bewitched (check out our cover).

Says the 26-year-old Michaelis School of Fine Art master’s graduate: “My work comes from a combination of my varied interests: the surface of luxury goods, the act of shopping, aspirational consumption, online dating, gay tourism, and so on. I try to let the coherence happen by itself.”

Besides collaborating regularly with Cape Town fashion label Adriaan Kuiters, Jody has an undeniable fascination with fashion. One of his works, a range of felt suits in a multitude of colours, comments on consumerism by creating a suit for every kind of mood.

Another suit, in a striking black-and-orange animal print, is a conscious nod to the work of German artist Joseph Beuys, who made wearable felt-suit sculptures in 1970 to explore themes of insulation and protection.

His combination of bright colours and designs is also highly reminiscent of the work of famous Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. Hardly an accident, explains Jody: “I used felt as a means to reflect on contemporary fashion in works such as Kusama’s collaboration with Louis Vuitton. In recreating these patterns through an obsessive process of hand applique, my intention is to comment on the surface of luxury and painstaking quality these fashion brands are renowned for.”

Jody will be exhibiting work at Cape Town Art Fair from 27 February to 2 March at the V&A Waterfront’s BMW Pavilion. Plus, a third collaboration with Adriaan Kuiters is also on the cards. In the mean time, we’d love to see our living room sporting one of these numbers.

jodykingston@gmail.com, artfaircapetown.co.za

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March 2014: With National Water Week from 17 to 24 March, and Earth Hour on Saturday 29 March, the WWF has moved The Journey of Water installation to the V&A Waterfront.

January 2014: Soon after being shortlisted for an Icon award for best emerging design studio in the world, VISI caught up with Lyall Sprong and Marc Nicolson about their new Story of Water installation at Kirstenbosch. They also told us about their upcoming Maker Library project.

Over the past three years, Cape Town design duo Thingking has become known for contraptions such as Tweet-operated vending machines, gumball dispensers made of Milnerton Market finds, and robotic pancake-making aids for kids.

At Design Indaba last year, they met British design curator and educator Daniel Charny who spoke about the maker revolution and his record-breaking Power of Making exhibition at the V&A Museum in London, as well as launching the Fixperts social network.

In February, Daniel will return to South Africa to launch The Maker Library Network, a British Council Connect/ZA project, at the Guild Design Fair (read more about Africa’s first international design fair here). “Daniel reckons libraries are changing and wants to make them more like demonstration spaces,” explains Marc. The libraries will have areas for workshops, a core set of books and a gallery. Thingking is the local project lead.

For those who are more into marvelling than making, get to Kirstenbosch to see Thingking’s water-cycle installation on behalf of WWF in collaboration with Ogilvy.

thingking.co.za,  makerlibraries.org,  wwf.org.za, ogilvy.co.za

As featured in the WILD DESIGN issue of VISI magazine, an official World Design Capital 2014 project.

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The four different clash-tastic covers are based on the hand-cut felt works of young Capetonian artist Jody Paulsen, in collaboration with photographer Nico Krinjo. Says editor-in-chief Sumien Brink: “I love the amazing mix of crazy colours and, best of all, that Africa is purple on every one – the Pantone colour of 2014.”

The covers set the tone for the WILD DESIGN to be found inside. Expect 80 pages of spectacular views, amazing architecture and the wildest decor on our beautiful, contrasting, crazy, jubilant continent. Curated by our deputy editor Annemarie Meintjes from her travels into the luxurious wilderness over the years, this section represents the crème-de-la-crème of living in Africa.

Offering insight, humour and poignancy are cultural commentators Mike van Graan, Michelle Constant, Sean O’Toole and Ashraf Jamal, as well as design industry leaders Erica Elk and Zahira Asmal. In the essays section, they write about how our 20 years of democracy has transformed our lifestyle.

The 20+14 reasons to love our country’s design includes insight into the global movement of collectible design and Cape Town’s newest international design fair, Guild. An historic timeline of iconic SA designs since democracy, as well as previews of some 18 official WDC2014 projects, are some of the other highlights. There is also a competition inviting readers to download, make and decorate their own flat-pack rhino (#VISI4rhinos #WDC428) based on Wintec Innovation’s Stratflex Rhino table.

Finally, a special 24-page colour trend forecast from Dulux, as well as the launch issue of Pam Goldings’ new Imagine magazine, are also included. 

With Cape Town as THE place to visit this year – according to the New York Times, Lonely Planet and others – VISI is proud to be the only magazine to be included on the World Design Capital’s accredited programme (VISI’s official hashtag is #WDC428). This accolade comes just months after VISI scooped two trophies at the MPASA Pica Awards, the Oscars of the local magazine industry. One was the much-coveted Philip Tyler Trophy for Best Launch/Relaunch, and the other was Cover of the Year for the memorable DIY cross-stich cover. Globally, the DIY issue was one of eight publications to get an honourable mention for Best Cover at the Ozzies in New York! 

Buy VISI at selected retail outlets for only R49.95 or get a 30% discount on annual print subscriptions and 50% discount on annual digital subscriptions. Subscribing before 27 March 2014 will enter you into a lucky draw to win a two-night break at the ultra-luxurious Bushmans Kloof Wilderness Reserve and Wellness Retreat.

Don’t forget to sign up to our weekly newsletter for the latest architecture and design news.

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