Context and collaboration in design give it heft and lend its storytelling weight. Raised on a farm in the Karoo, Frances Van Hasselt is well versed in the power of the collective and the ability a space has to shape a creative project.
As a textile designer with a deep affinity for her medium of mohair, her work is informed by the landscape she was surrounded by as she grew up.
For a recent collaborative project, she invited ceramicist Eva Shuman to join her in merging their two chosen media to create something new, informed entirely by the unique environment of her home.
The goal? To capture the multifaceted character of the Karoo through the modes of mohair and clay and to explore how these interact with each other and react to the landscape. Merging these two traditional forms of making, both of which also use natural materials, seemed fitting in this ancient landscape.
Using the Karoo's vast colour and textural palette as their toolbox, they embarked on creating and documenting a playful and exploratory body of mixed-media work.
"I often feel that the Karoo is expressed and understood through a narrow and predictable lens; earth colours and washed-out heat-waved scenes. But once you experience the pulse of the desert and notice the small details of a veld flower and luminous water-coloured skies, you begin to discover her many moods and the ability of nature to put colour, texture and pattern together in ways we can only dream about," says Van Hasselt.
Shuman, whose fashion background informed the sculptural shapes of her vessels and whose work leans towards bold colours, created 10 pieces. Van Hasselt then imposed the silhouettes of the pieces onto a handful of one-off woven pieces, each of which is not fully replicable.
"Each piece was a collaborative effort. The way we put this body of work together reflects the Karoo as we saw it in a specific movement of time and with no pre-determined notion of what we were going to create," she adds.
To capture the interplay between pieces, they enlisted photographer Manesha Caldi and stylist and art director Sanri Pienaar. The collective worked to capture the pieces at different times of day.
"Together we learnt how to see the connection between each piece and the smallest detail of a passing cactus or a fold of a mountain line that fits perfectly into the crease of clay or line of a rug," says Van Hasselt.
Pienaar echoes this experience. "We approached it totally openly with no brief, as a personal passion project that we could explore and create freely and go as wild and out there as we wanted.
The project is really a celebration — of being outside again, to create again after a period of restriction and the joy of working with like-minded people," she says.
This optimism comes through in the playfulness of the pieces and the images which are bright, free, and fresh.
"I believe there is so much power in collaboration. It brings forth a sense of unity and creativity that leads to end results that are so different from what we create on our own," says Caldi.
The pieces are on show at The Fourth in Cape Town.
See Francesvh.com and Evamakesceramics.com
