Art & Design Saturday to look at How Women Lead
A highlight of the programme is an exhibition by acclaimed South African artist Penny Siopis. It showcases a series of original prints and a large-scale mohair tapestry that forms part of a larger body of work entitled Shame, produced by Siopis between 2002 and 2006. These works have been described as 'intimate imaginings of childhood sexuality' exploring the idea and experience of shame as both a public phenomenon and a psychological condition. Siopis created these works in collaboration with women-led studios Stephens Tapestry Studio and David Krut Print Workshop (DKW).
Constructing a new black heroine
An exhibition by Florine Demosthene is another feature of the programme. Born in the United States and raised between Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and New York, Demosthene earned her bachelor of fine arts from Parsons the New School for Design and her master of fine arts from the Hunter College-City University of New York. She has exhibited extensively in the USA, Caribbean, UK; Europe and Africa. Demosthene’s paintings and collages, look at the black female form and the stereotypes associated with the bodies of black women with the aim of constructing a new black heroine.
The co-founder of Women in Bloom Nandi Dlepu will kick off the talks programme. She will give insight into this important conversation series featuring women who are ‘in bloom’ in many different areas of society. Another creative powerhouse to have emerged from Africa is Swaady Martin-Leke, an Ivorian entrepreneur and the founder of homegrown African global luxury brand Yswara. Martin-Leke left a corporate career to create a business that showcases luxury products produced by artisans across the continent.
Also on the speaker lineup is Dr Cobi Labuscagne, director of Artlogic and the FNB JoburgArtFair. She was one of the founding team members of the art fair and has since launched the Sanlam Handmade Contemporary Fair and the Winter Sculpture Fair among other lifestyle events. After receiving her doctorate as a fellow at Wiser, she has continued academic work alongside her leadership role at Artlogic and is currently an associate researcher at the University of Pretoria's Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS).
Ladies Wine & Design
Rounding off the spotlight on female creative entrepreneurs is the popular event series Ladies Wine & Design (LWD). LWD is an international initiative that was founded in New York by Jessica Walsh and is now run in over 180 cities around the world. The aim is to mentor and encourage women in the creative sector through a free gathering which is centred around a new theme each month. Ladies Wine & Design Johannesburg is hosted by Guiyani Monteiro and Roberta Thatcher and will focus on collaboration in creative spaces.
The Emporium will feature fashion collective Vatic Studio, which is directed by Nicole van Heerden, as well as Stay Evil Kids, a conceptual art and product design studio that was founded by Wendy Dixon and Jennifer Bradley in collaboration with Myūzu. They will be joined by Counterspace Studio, a Johannesburg-based collaborative architectural studio directed by the all-women team of Amina Kaskar, Sarah de Villiers, and Sumayya Vally. Anatomy Design and True Design will also be open.