Events & Exhibitions

Forage Inc is a range of botanical inks made from ethically foraged indigenous South African plants. Plants used traditionally in the dyeing of natural basketry fibres and leather tanning, create botanical inks that have good light-fast properties and a beautiful range of colours.
Join us for an introduction by Nikki to foraging for art materials, dyes, inks and pigments and a focus on her special interest: lichens for dyeing and the use of New Zealand flax as a fibre.

“Adams approaches materiality through his own subjectivity. Often, cultural and religious references are used in conjunction with surfaces that have always been present throughout his life; thread, beads, wire, linoleum, cotton twine, fabric.

His interest in the material oscillates between the intuitive process of handling different substances as well as a formal inquiry into how various materials behave in different contexts and how they transfigure or evolve. Likening the material’s potential for evolution to his own potential for evolution, Adams is engaged in broadening his ideas of selfhood in an ongoing process of covering and uncovering, doing and undoing.” (source)

Our guest speaker has held solo exhibitions at:

• the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston
• The Art Institute of Chicago
• Kunsthalle Zurich
• Hayward Gallery (London)
• SCAD Museum of Art (Savannah)
• Akershus Kunstsenter (Oslo)
• Iziko South African National Gallery (Cape Town), among others.

He’s also participated in numerous international group shows.

Adams has been selected for several artist residencies among them:

• the Atelier residency at Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town
• A4 Arts Foundation in Cape Town
• the Sommerakademie im Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern
• IAAB Pro Helvetia residency in Basel

In 2018, Adams was awarded the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Art. We look forward to exploring this perspective on textiles.

As crafters, many of us are quite particular about choosing natural fibers for our projects – for all sorts of good reasons. Natural fibers feel good, wear well, have ancient traditions, are biodegradable, sustainable, etc, etc. Yet, with recycling technology developing by leaps and bounds we are moving towards an era where (some) recycled synthetic materials will have a smaller carbon footprint than (some) natural materials.

In any case, we believe that stepping out of your comfort zone and trying something you normally wouldn’t, is refreshing and can give a new perspective on things. Hence, we are inviting you all to join us in exploring all sorts of weird and wonderful synthetics at our March Guild meeting.

The aim is for each one of us to create a small tapestry on a frame using 100% synthetic materials. The frame can be anything that you can put a warp on (an empty picture frame, an embroidery hoop, a forked twig or a piece of cardboard…) and warp and weft can be anything as long as it’s 100% synthetic: acrylic yarns, plastic bags, orange pocket nets, plastic cutlery, nylon stockings, dental floss – you name it. Technique and design we leave up to you – maybe you’ll let the project guide you as it emerges.

Bring your frame and your most fabulous synthetics and scissors plus blunt tapestry needles and forks for beating and let’s play and be creative together for the afternoon. We’ll start the meeting at 12:00 sharp. Friends and family members welcome!