Design of the week: Swapna Prabhakaran
Dedicated dancers at ESP, Doornfontein’s=20 roofless rave venue, have been waiting for=20 a month to see what’s behind the heavy=20 material curtains. Big signs have warned:=20 “Don’t look behind here!”
But all was revealed at the Garden of Eden=20 party last Sunday. Despite a badly-timed=20 raid by the police, hundreds entered to=20 celebrate the new look which was designed=20 by Carin, Vicky and Juniper of Trio=20 Creative Murals.
Using an extravaganza of neons and metallic=20 paints, they have made the walls crawl with=20 incredibly detailed trippy patterns. A=20 twelve-foot giraffe grazes on the leaves of=20 twisted-stemmed trees near the balcony.=20 Snakes wind around strawberries and ants=20 crawl over a naked blue-skinned woman. A=20 dragon lies curled up and asleep in a spot=20 of sunshine, and red eyes peer from apple- laden trees. Fat fish swim through grass=20 and in the chillrooms, Escher-like=20 manipulations of space in UV paints spiral=20 inwards and downwards. A neon heartline=20 paces across a corner, in time with the=20 music.=20
Vicky says they’ve used different kinds of=20 paints “so there are some things that only=20 show up at night and other things that you=20 can only see during the day.”