Last year Guild design fair made its debut as the first international design fair in Africa. For all its controversy, Word Design Capital held in Cape Town in 2014, helped generate global awareness about the city and its design talents and fostered a great deal of publicity for the Guild design fair.
Although expectations of attendees around a debut show are not always clear, exceeding them is a prerequisite for success .And while there is some tolerance around the teething problems of a first show, the second isn’t given the same leeway. Not that last year’s Guild should have been concerned. Italian designer Rossana Orlandi described as a “global icon with a nose for the future” of Spazio Rossana Orlandi had luke warm expectations of the fair but these were far exceeded by her “wonderful” experience of the Guild design fair.
Last year’s Guild impressed with a wide selection of designers from the African continent to Europe and America working in innovative, interesting ways in a variety of mediums as did the finish of the products . As Julian McGowan co founder of Guild said, there was an interesting combination of the “primal raw feel of African designs with the refined work of the Americans and the technicolour pop world of the Italians”.
Apart from the evidence of high quality craft, one of the lasting impressions from last year’s Guild was the sense of cheeky quirkiness and playful humour that many of the pieces possessed from the anthropomorphic tables and chairs of West African Babacar Niang with their human feet and stubby fingers to the Haas brothers chaise lounges with their hairy flokati finish , flashy, kitsch gold “poote” and absurd animal horns. This humour continues in pieces such as Bronze Age Foundry’s massive King Kong type bronze Gorilla cabinet with a door in his chest.
According to Trevyn McGowan co- founder of Guild who has just returned from the Miami fair the primary focus of 2014 guild was “ to show South Africa and Cape Town what we ‘d experienced when we took our designers to the best fairs around in the world and exhibitions in Miami, Dubai, London and New York”.
How does the ethos of Guild differ from the rest of world fairs? Trevyn believes that South African designers are “intrinsically makers, they are designing and making their own work. And Guild works with galleries and designers who work in a similar manner.”
So what’s different about this year’s fair? For starters the 6 original exhibition stands have grown to 12. Viewers will be able to reacquaint themselves with the new work of last year’s designers such as Doctor and Misses and Porky Hefer, plus a host of newcomers.
Over the last 12 months at least four new collaborations have been born.
For the first time Porky Hefer and Botswanan designer Peter Mabeo of the Mabeo Furniture company have teamed up . Hefer’s “chaotic” nests which elicit a strong “I want to lie in that now” are exhibited together with Mabeo’s calm, contained pieces . Interestingly although Mabeo has worked with ”international designer heavies” such as Patricia Urquiola , this will be a collaborative first with a designer from South Africa . The “legendary” LA Haas Bothers who have Lady Gaga and Versace as clients have gained a clutch of South African sisters through a design collaboration called Afreaka where South African beaders from Monkeybiz turned their simple trippy hippy sketches into 3- d bead sculptures. The bond between the brothers and the beaders grew so close that the beaders now refer to themselves as the Haas sisters. This has also secured permanent employment for the sisters.
Newcomers include Massoud, a brother and sister team. Working via the Lebanese Carwan Gallery which exhibits globally, they have collaborated with Bronze Age Foundry and Imso’s ceramist Andile Dyalvane to produce a work called Autopsy which is inspired by fertility dolls.
Dutch artist Frederik Molenschot another newbie hooked up with Gone Rural Swaziland to create a interactive handmade woven installation inspired by how cities sleep at night.
A major global trend seen in this year Guild according to Trevyn is quality handwork. “There’s been a real return to the original and traditional, instinctively human skills” says Trevyn. “ It’s craft but very high end, expensive products”. She illustrates this by referring to the weaving, both the scale of Porky Hefer and Gone Rural. Other examples of high end hand work are also found in the hand decorated cabinets of Doctors and Misses inspired by geometric patterns of tribal patterns and the bead work of Monkeybiz .
Sustainability continues to be an ethical global consideration. Guild supports this approach in a number of ways. There’s the fostering of collaborations between top world designers and South African crafters who are upskilled during the process and whose work is given a global platform. Then there is the ethos of limited editions as a sustainable practice. Trevyn believes that the intrinsic quality of a bespoke collectable item, unlike a mass produced one, inhibits the need for purchasing hundreds of pieces . And because collectables are better made, they are revered and more likely to be passed down from generation to generation. Plus, the artisans who made them are more likely to be properly recompensed for the work produced.
Guild could be regarded as an economic lever according to Trevyn. She explains that while South Africa cannot compete with the far east for mass manufacturing we are fast becoming purveyors of high end bespoke craft and design of the kind seen at Guild .
Visitors will also be able to see the making of pieces in progress. Studio Swine, a British company will revisit their Mexico City project where they smelted aluminum cans to make furniture.
Look out for conceptual artist Kendell Geers’s design work which premiered in Basel last year but has never been seen in his home country. Geers is exhibiting under the auspices of The Carpenter Shop reputedly one of the most respected galleries in the world.
Take home a hand crafted piece by the Artisan range created by Watershed, the new home for top African design and craft at the V& A. And even if you can’t afford to purchase a piece take the advice of Trevyn and be inspired.
WHAT, WHERE, WHEN: Guild, design fair at the V & A Lookout from 25 February to March 1.
INFO: visit
Preview by Lucinda Jolly first appeared in The Cape Times
