African Avant Garde
In this essay there will be a discussion about how the colonization of Africa by Europe influenced the development of new design languages by introducing foreign cultures. In 1652 the Dutch started to occupy the southern tip of Africa. As they expanded, they were later joined by Germans, French, Scandinavians, British, Indians, Indonesians and Malagasians to name but a few and started to mainly mix with Khoisan, Xhosa and Zulu people.. This led to a countless mixture of all aspects of culture and to prove the fusion of culture one can merely refer to the fact that within the above mentioned groups a new race came forth which today is known as Cape Coloureds. They have their own way of speaking, singing and expressing themselves. If one looks, it is inevitable that when people interact so closely with each other that they would start to blend their traditional art and crafts. To support what is said above there will be five examples of contemporary African, Avant Garde products to serve as evidence in the following order; Figure 1: Pichulik Ndebele Necklace by Pichulik, Figure 6: The Story Vase by Front Design and the Siyazama project from the KZN, Figure 12: Nguni dinning chair by John Vogel, Figure14: Indigi Design’s stool by Natalie du Toit from Indigi Designs and Figure 18: Imbenge wire weaved bowl by Marisa Fick-Jordaan from ZenZulu. To understand the statement above, the Avant Garde example of Pichulik fusion of contemporary Western jewellery and traditional African Ndebele jewellery will be discussed.
Katherine-Mary Pichulik creates authentic, unique, Avant Garde neckpieces and accessories like never seen before. As a child growing up in Morningside, Johannesburg, she tells about decorating herself with found pieces and objects of shell and wood as from a young age (Malibongwe Tyilo, 2013). She likes exotic things, says colour is not limited to her creations. She makes jewels from found objects from both the striking and mundane, some are wearable and some
Katherine-Mary Pichulik creates authentic, unique, Avant Garde neckpieces and accessories like never seen before. As a child growing up in Morningside, Johannesburg, she tells about decorating herself with found pieces and objects of shell and wood as from a young age (Malibongwe Tyilo, 2013). She likes exotic things, says colour is not limited to her creations. She makes jewels from found objects from both the striking and mundane, some are wearable and some
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