The Western Cape, so synonymous with a diversity of natural beauty, has an equally rich history of beautiful craft and design. See thi reflected in the Make It New exhibition.
Our spectacular coastal landscape, the perpetual sounds of the sea, the rush of the wind, the complexity of the city, our diverse heritage and identities, the busy harbour, and the elements of nature – sea, light, animals, shells and fynbos – provides a contemporary living context for MAKE IT NEW, an exhibition showcasing significant objects produced in the Western Cape.
The MAKE IT NEW exhibition, from 15 – 19 October 2014 (10am – 6pm) at Cape Town Stadium, is presented by the Cape Craft and Design Institute (CCDI) and sponsored by the Western Cape Department of Cultural Affairs and Sports (DCAS) and Cape Town Design.
The CCDI exhibition is part of a flagship project of World Design Capital (WDC) Cape Town 2014 titled Makers + Thinkers – see. learn. do.
The week at the Stadium will include a WDC Design Policy Conference; a WDC Design House Exhibition “Transforming Cities” highlighting international examples of transformative design; and a Local Food Feast.
The CCDI exhibition will explore relationships and connections across time. This starts with an exploration of how traces of our indigenous pasts and our global connections have shaped innovation and transformation; processes such as communication, the settlements of people, and the legacies of sea travel that marks the Cape as part of a network of ports have formed a locale for making beautiful things. Over 100 images from the Western Cape Museums’ archives and objects from antiquity and tradition will be counterpoised with contemporary design objects, linking functionality, material or making methods. From the earliest human settlement, tool creation and body adornment, visitors will move through time to the finely crafted furniture and ceramics, and innovation found in the repurposing of materials.
The exhibition, featuring the work of over 170 designers and craft producers from all over the Western Cape, will lead visitors on to a striking showcase of contemporary items, exploring local design sensibility, and through the disruptive layout and product selection it will prompt reflection on the nature of the Western Cape’s current design handwriting and the fusion – or not – of cultures and influences.
This contemporary showcase will also explore how the Cape’s creative producers of today demonstrate design thinking, innovation and problem solving in a variety of ways, and how they are re-visiting the long established in a totally new way and making it new.
These contemporary designers and craft producers, like artists and artisans over the ages, have drawn from what has come before and the context of their world, to innovate and create something new. While the phrase make it new is most synonymous with the Modernists’ reaction to tradition in the first part of the 20th Century, the deep roots of seeing, learning and doing, on reflecting on the past and present world, and the discovery of new sources of inspiration and new ways of expression are indeed a mark of a universal human creative process.
“The CCDI is proud to be a part of this flagship World Design Capital Cape Town 2014 project at the Cape Town Stadium, the largest exhibition of Cape craft and design we have ever undertaken,” said CCDI Executive Director, Erica Elk.
“As a free to the public exhibition, it is an opportunity for all Capetonians and visitors to our city to explore our rich craft and design heritage as well as the many beautiful and innovative contemporary designs emanating from creative individuals and businesses across the province. ”
The CCDI’s Design & Making [story of food] exhibition in the Good Hope Gallery at the Castle of Good Hope has also been extended to the end of October 2014 to coincide with the MAKE IT NEW exhibition at the Cape Town Stadium – it continues to draw excellent attendance.
