African statue art

I wasn’t sure if the grim-looking proprietor was happy for us to take photos so I moved our party along leaving him to assume that we were foreign tourists.

Five strange horses

Each of the five horses has a trumpet-like piece of aluminum protruding from their mouths and from beneath their tails (see the pics below). What the photos don’t show is that the five horses are interconnected by underground tubes that help convey sound. The idea is for pairs of people to work out which trumpet is linked to which other trumpet by speaking and listening.

These strange horses reminded me of another strange horse whom you may like to follow on Twitter.

The Civic Center's knot of red tube art

What I could find out is that the work was commissioned from the renowned South African artist, Edoardo Villa, in 1981. What’s interesting is that in 1981 the National Party won a majority of the seats in government, 131 of the 165 seats. I wonder if the work was commissioned to commemorate this event?

Malawian art

Jake, the Malawian artist in the photo, commented in me taking photos and then quickly proceeded with his sales routine. I wasn’t in the market for paintings – but since I wasn’t in a particular rush to get anywhere I didn’t mind listening to his story.

Jake and his brother are from Malawi and came to Cape Town (like many other foreign nationals) to seek a better life. I don’t know if he’s found the better life, but he spends his days near the sea selling paintings and at night goes home to work on more stock – which doesn’t sound too bad, right?

Unfortunately, often these guys can’t afford good accommodation, so they often don’t live in the very nice conditions. Given this, and given the wealth of Camps Bay that they face each day, I find it extremely admirable to see how jovial they seem; on the outside at least.

For reference, before negotiating Jake will offer you a painting at R180 (which isn’t a bad price for art, actually). If you don’t have the money on you, he’s fully prepared to negotiate the price – but don’t be too stingy now. Ok?

A Shiny Metal Elephant

You’ll find this and many other artworks outside the African Trading Post at the V&A Waterfront.

No, I never actually knew that elephants were part of the Proboscidea family.

African Art

Even when the paperwork is completed, and even though many are highly educated, they struggle to find full-time work and are forced to continue making a living by selling artworks like these, watching over parked cars for tips, and by doing other menial jobs ill-fit for their education.

If you’d like to purchase one of these items, I always see the guys selling them at the turnoff to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens on the M3. They’re not expensive, so unless you don’t have the money, rather pay full price and smile.

African Curios

Today’s photo is of one of many containers absolutely filled with small statues of African animals carved from soapstone. Even though the store is located in a prime tourist area, these carvings cost only R10 each – which to me seemed like a fair bargain. (I can’t say much for the price of the other items – I never really looked at prices.)

Even if you’re not intending on buying anything, you should visit the shop just to see the huge variety of items sourced from all over Africa. You’ll find African Trading Port located close to Den Anker and the NSRI slipway at the V&A Waterfront.

Public Art

Although Cape Town has it’s fair share of statues, they’re mostly political in nature and weren’t placed in the public domain for reasons of artistic appreciation (I don’t think). However, there appears to have been a gradual move towards public art displays – with the most notable one being the scuptures of girls and butterflies along the Sea Point promenade.

The Infecting the City public art festival is set to take place from 21 February until 26 February in Cape Town. (Here’s a schedule). While the main hub will be located on the square outside the Cape Town Station the displays and performances will be spread all over the CBD area. If you’re not normally in the city, make a plan to visit – there’s going to be plenty to see and admire!

Faith and The Cape of Good Hope

Take a closer look and you’ll see that today’s photo is simply a different perspective on yesterday’s one. The main photo from yesterday’s post is content of the letter “I” in the word “FAITH”.

I have a couple of ideas, but I’m not completely sure what message the artists were trying to convey on this wall. Would anyone venture taking a guess? Please leave a comment on this post if you think you know what they were thinking.

Fan photo

Two notable South African musicians established a trust fund, called SHOUT, with the idea that monies collected by the fund would be donated to anti-crime organisations, like Crime Line and Business Against Crime. They then got together with a few more notable musicians to record a modern version of the Tears for Fears track called Shout. The track is currently for sale at several prices from R20 to R1000 – the amount that you pay is at your discretion. Visit the SHOUT SA website to hear the track and for more information on how to donate.

Chalk drawings

When I saw these guys I wondered if their time wouldn’t be more well spent doing the same with some kind of super-hardy paint. The chalk will wash away with the first, or perhaps second, rains but having these kinds of paintings in appropriate places could be quite a feature. Don’t you think?

Statue at Sea Point promenade

This sculpture of a young girl represents “a young South African democracy”, full of hope and promise. Read more about the project and the other sculptures in the Walking the Road display on Marieke’s website.

Art on 5

I found Art on 5 while with Kerry-Anne on an impromptu photo walk in Stellenbosch. My previous photo was taken though the hole in the blurry artist’s palette at the back of this photo.

Stellenbosch is filled with creative people that love painting, photography, pottery, and many other forms of art. Shops like Art on 5 certainly aren’t scarce, but if you’d like to browse an art shop, and would like to do so in a nice part of town, this would be the spot. Besides for the many little shops, there are also several small restaurants that, perhaps in typical French style, spill out onto the pavement creating a vibe that makes Stellenbosch just perfect for a Saturday or Sunday morning brunch.

I tried finding more information about this art shop on the web, but sadly it seems as though they’re not keen on being e-found.

Old weighing scale

I’m a bit of a sucker for antiques and retro housewares. I spotted this old scale hanging in a lovely little gift and décor shop in the Cape Quarter, called Baraka. If you like unusual curios, antique kitchen utensils, handmade leather-bound photo albums, and brightly coloured cushions, then put Baraka on your list of places to visit. I hinted an awful lot while we were browsing around, but unfortunately all Paul got me was this photo.

I guess I’ll have to go back on my own one of these days, armed with my credit card and a very large shopping bag. Also, comfortable shoes, because I could be there for several hours. And Paul doesn’t need to know, okay?

Night craft market

Every first Saturday of the month, a variety of crafters get together under the trees in Durbanville to sell their home-made products at the Durbanville Craft Market. In December the organisers put together special night markets for people who would like to buy hand-made gifts for their friends and family. Apart from the handcrafted items that you can purchase, there’s always take-away food available, and a variety of entertainers to keep shoppers amused. The night markets are finished for the year now, but keep them in mind next year – they have some pretty cool stuff for sale.

Click here to see a list of craft markets around the country.

HDR sunset photo from Woodstock

I don’t often “fiddle” with our daily photos much, but decided this time to try and compile an HDR version of the the spectacular sunset that we had last Wednesday. And, while this is an HDR photo, I didn’t play with the colours and didn’t fiddle with brushes or weird filters to alter the original photos in any way.

If you’re unfamiliar with HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography, give me a moment to explain. Typically, when humans look at high-contrast scenes (like sunsets) our eyes adjust so quickly that we’re able to see detail in a huge amount of contrast – from the very bright sun dipping below the horizon, to the dark shadows caused by mountains, buildings and other obstacles.

HDR photos are typically composed of three or more photos of exactly the same scene, taken one after the other from exactly the same position, only at different exposures – meaning that one photo will be really dark (underexposed), one will be really bright (overexposed) and one will be properly exposed.

One then uses software to merge the three (or more) photos into a single picture that typically takes the best from all three photos and combines them into a single photo. My photo above got a little out of hand (with the eerie-looking shadows creeping along the road and down from Devil’s Peak) ending up looking perhaps like the scene belongs more in a movie about demons and vampires.

PS. I promise, there are no vampires in Cape Town. Demons, however – there are plenty – we’ve been battling several of them at work in the last week!

Christmas Market

On Wednesday I popped in at the Neighbourgoods Market’s special evening Christmas market. When I arrived, there was hardly place for a sardine to squeeze between the bustling shoppers. The after-work rush only started to disperse after 8pm (which is when I managed to find a spot to take this photo).

The market had plenty of gift-like items inside the main building, with the courtyard dedicated to all kinds of edible treats – just to make sure that people didn’t leave early to go and have dinner. The organisers even arranged for a band to keep things festive, and by all accounts they did a pretty good job of that.

The best part of the evening for me was when I spotted a young woman and her accomplice carrying away a crate filled with delicious if-they-were-any-fresher-they-would-be-warm loaves of bread – presumably from Knead (who had a stall at the market). When I enquired of her as to where they were taking the yummy-looking loaves she said that they weren’t selling fast enough, so they were taking them to a nearby homeless shelter! How’s that for generosity? Instead of keeping the loaves to see if they’d perhaps sell a few more, or even trying to sell them the following day, they decided to give them away while still fresh.

Don’t you think the gesture was appropriate for a Christmas market in particular?

One Roof studio

Cape Town houses such creativity – I sometimes wonder if it’s the mountain, the sea, or perhaps the forests that encourage its residents’ artistry. I think it has something to do with all of these, but I’m of the opinion that it also has something to do with the African soil on which the city is built.

In addition to Cape Town Daily Photo, Kerry-Anne and I own another website, The Red Balloon Craft Junction, which allows South African artists and crafters to advertise their work for free. In South Africa, while many people get involved in arts and crafts purely for the love of the hobby, these days I think there are more and more who do so because it’s a much-needed alternative source of income.

If you’re interested in arts and crafts, consider signing up for Kerry-Anne’s (free) monthly newsletter, the Craft Gazette, or click here to see what December’s newsletter was filled with.

The photo above was taken at One Roof, the studio that I mentioned yesterday. If you have a moment, take a look at a few more of the photos I snapped while visiting.

Tubes of paint and colour

One Roof is a shared studio where artists, and other creatives, share space to perform their passion. It’s a single large, large room, where everyone has their own little space to work on their art or craft, in an environment that allows them to draw on one another’s creativity and passion.

Tessa and her husband Alex opened the One Roof studio early in 2009 because of Tessa’s love for working with ceramics and the difficulty that they experienced in finding a small and affordable spot where she could exercise her love for the art. Today they provide a creative space for an assortment of artists and crafters who paint, make leather goods, craft ceramics, and do glass-blowing. The studio has an open day on the first Saturday of each month, so if you visit the Neighbourgoods Market at The Old Biscuit Mill, track down the studio – they’re tucked away on the top floor of the main building.

When books go out the window

Besides the fact that this photo was taken outside a book shop in Cape Town, my story today has little to do with Cape Town itself. I love technology, and devices like e-readers and Amazon Kindles are awesome (I want one!), but won’t it be sad when humanity eventually stops cutting down trees to print books?

Okay, yes, I know that it’s a bit of a catch-22 situation – I’d support the saving of our forests, but on the other hand, a printed book is just so much better than a cold and generic electronic device. Apart from the touchy-feely part that makes real books cool, photos in particular simply look better in print – and I do wonder if digital would ever supersede the beauty of a printed photo.

P.S. I really have to find a publisher – I printed an 8×8 trial book a few weeks ago, and as I said, printed photos just rock!

Of a bygone era

I mentioned a while ago that Chocolat, the coffee shop and restaurant in Durbanville, has interesting decor – most of which is for sale. This particular clock was standing on a small table, together with a beautiful lamp.

Isn’t it cool that today, with all the modern furniture and appliances, you can still decorate your home as though it were an old-style cottage (or mansion if you’re lucky enough to have one )?

Personally, I’m caught it a predicament where I like minimalist modern decor as well as this kind of retro old-style English/French decor. But perhaps there’s a happy medium of minimalist old-style English/French – although some may argue that this happy medium is due only to my budgetary constraints.

Longkloof in Hout Bay

After reading what Paul had written about Longkloof in the previous post, my immediate thought was, “Pah! How hard can it be to find some information about this historical building? Must be all over the web, surely… he couldn’t have googled very well…”

I had to eat my words, of course, after paying a visit to Google. Plenty has been written about Longkloof the area, but I couldn’t find anything about this building. I couldn’t even find a photograph of it online, which surprised me, because I thought it was a fairly obvious subject for a photo shoot. I’m not one to give up when faced with a mystery, though, so I kept on hunting.

I found this set of notes by Anne Lehmkuhl (definitely worth a read if history fascinates you), from which I was able to deduce that the building was once the wine cellar of the farm Groot Moddergat, and was built somewhere around 1841.

But I wanted to know what the building is NOW. Not content, I kept going, trying a bunch of different search terms, until eventually I struck gold. Or rather… clay. Because, as it turns out, the building now houses… drum roll, please… A POTTERY STUDIO.

It was no easy job to figure that out, let me tell you. And even once I’d worked it out using my superior powers of observation, I still couldn’t find a single website to actually verify this information. So how did I know? Well, while Paul was taking photos of the building, I happened to notice the unusual fence adjoining the house, just off to the right of this shot. And when I saw this photo on the Longkloof Pottery site, I recognised the fence and wall immediately.

Now, please don’t go knocking on the door and demanding to see the pottery – judging by the lack of information on the web and the lack of signage outside the property, I’m guessing that the talented resident potter, Yogi, would prefer to keep his studio a sanctuary. (And a pretty awesome sanctuary it must be too!) Visit his website to see more of his remarkable work and find out how to contact him.

Opera Shows

We were invited to the launch of Encore, an “opera appreciation club” created by Cape Town Opera to promote opera (and other performing arts) among 20- and 30-somethings. Don’t you think that the posters for “Dead Man Walking”, “Cunning Little Vixen”, and “Requiem Mass” all look enticingly appealing?

We spent the evening listening to several young, stylish and talented singers and musicians perform in a style that I’m not accustomed to, and while I’d have to admit that I’ll never be a opera junkie, the performances were pretty darn good and definitely worth making a part of your “night on the town”.

Joining Encore is a matter of paying a R100 fee per year, which gives members access to several benefits – you can read about them right here. If you’d like to go out regularly, have the chance to dress up a little, enjoy some sophisticated entertainment, and perhaps meet other young people with similar interests, give it a try – I think it’s certainly worth the R100.

Lettuce Field

This is the second last photo from our series about Joostenbergvlakte, and a photo that I’d considered using for yesterday’s theme day, titled “Contrast”.

If you’re used to living in a large city then this kind of scene probably seems quite unusual. What’s cool about Cape Town is that farms and smallholdings like this one aren’t too far from the city centre, which means that within half an hour you can move from the inner city, through leafy suburbia, to wide-open farms.

What I found interesting about this little field is that the farmer has planted green lettuce in between his two rows of red lettuce. It doesn’t seem particularly practical – I mean, surely all the red lettuce will be harvested together? All I can think is that he has a bit of an artistic eye, and likes to keep his fields pretty.

Pretty in pink

In my previous post I explained how I ended up at the ghd Revelations Fashion Event. Now, let me take a moment to fill you in, just a little, on the experience.

After arriving at the venue, I stood waiting to be let inside, in a queue of about 100 people, most of whom were (understandably) women. I’m used to going out with Kerry-Anne, so being partnerless already made the evening a little strange. But once I got inside, things got progressively stranger as I wandered from room to room, each of which housed an individually styled photo set.

Some of the rooms had women dressed in Moulin Rouge-like costume, and others were like scenes from the 1950s. On each set the models and performers seemed to be acting out some kind of private play – permanently on repeat.

The two girls in the photo above were the cutest ever. They appeared to be part of some kind of Alice in Wonderland scene. They sat on a small bench in a little nook giggling and whispering into each other’s ears. The set directly after theirs featured a birthday girl who got hopelessly drunk after nobody arrived at her birthday party. (She must have been a really mean person, because the spread on the table looked awesome!).

Unfortunately the scarcity of light made getting good photos a little challenging, but click here and take a moment to browse the few photos I did manage to take.

Tenille from Feminine Divine

There’s a cynical statement that says that people become teachers because they’re not able to actually do whatever it is that they teach in practice. Tenille (in this photo) is the founder of and teacher at the Feminine Divine Oriental Dance Studio where Kerry-Anne attends classes, and I’m confident in saying that she both teaches and practises what she teaches like a pro.

Kerry-Anne’s progress from her own unique… erm… style, to the performance delivered on Saturday (in only a couple of months) simply has to be proof of this! In fact, all round, the performances delivered by the (approximately) 200 dancing divas was worthy of a standing ovation.

I mentioned in my previous two posts that I’ve been working on photos from Saturday’s show. Finally, I’m done. If you’d like to see the 200 best shots of the day, visit the photo album here… and please, don’t forget to comment on photos that you think are simply awesome.

Cane Dance

The day of the long-awaited Feminine Divine Studio show eventually arrived. Kerry-Anne, and the rest of the dance studio, had spent months practising an assortment of belly-dance styles, and making costumes to match.

This is only the first sample of the photos to come (I’m busy working through the 500 photos I shot!); this genteel yet slightly cheeky cane dance was performed by the studio’s teachers towards the end of the show. All in all, the show was spectacular, and I guess can be summed up in the words of Anais Nin (taken from the Feminine Divine website): “There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”.

Nelson Mandela

As many of you will probably know, today is Nelson Mandela’s ninety-first birthday. Co-incidentally, it’s also the day on which groups of photographers took to the streets of their towns and cities armed with cameras, to take part in the second global Worldwide Photo Walk.

After our late night at Wakame, I momentarily regretted signing up for the walk, as it meant getting up in time to meet the rest of the group near the planetarium in Cape Town at 8am. But somehow I dragged myself out of bed, drove through to town, and met up with a group of about 20 photographers. We spent the next two to three hours walking the streets of Cape Town, spending quite some time in the well-known open-air St George’s Mall. In retrospect I was glad that I didn’t bail on the outing – the weather was fantastic, the other photographers were friendly and fun, and there were almost too many great opportunities for photos.

We’ll be posting more of the photos from the walk over the next few days; but for now, let me close by wishing you, Madiba, a happy birthday and brilliant next year!

These Four Walls fine art gallery

The idea behind These Four Walls is for it to be a gallery with a semi-informal atmosphere where “average people” are able to purchase original works of art at affordable prices. What I like about the gallery is that their website’s homepage has a link to photos of the works displayed in the current exhibition.

These Four Walls is at 169 Lower Main Road in Observatory, and is open Tuesday through Friday from 10h00 to 17h00, and Saturday from 10h00 to 13h00. Most artists don’t paint to make money, they paint to express something for others to enjoy. So, if you find yourself in the area, if you love art, and even if you’re not shopping, visit the gallery and stimulate your creativity.

Birds of steel for your garden

I found out that the cost for these (what I’m assuming to be garden statues) ranges from R180 for the large, more detailed birds at the back, to R150 for the large, but less detailed ones in the second-last row. The price decreases along with the size of the bird, all the way down to R50 for ones about the size of a shoe-box.

As with the tyre-swings, you’ll find this stand just up the road from the Stodels Nursery in Bellville.