Black Maps is an ongoing project by artist Josh Ginsburg.
Black Maps online archive by Josh Ginsburg
Black Maps is an ongoing project by artist Josh Ginsburg that deals with dead ends, loops, cul-de-sacs and through fares. Though the project exists (and has existed) in various forms, the most notable perhaps is an interactive web environment housing a selection of media pulled from a priviate offline archive comprised of over 40 000 elements. Visiting the website, participants are taken on a self-paced journey by clicking on images, audio files, videos and bits of text that present themselves in the swirling digital maze. It soon becomes evident that these are not underpinned by any discerning logic but rather, exist purely to be explored. The idea to digitally map his memory, Josh says was never planned, “I was really frustrated that thoughts or ideas were being feverishly recorded in my notebooks or on my computer and were piling up at home, or being buried deep on a hard drive, protected to the extent that I was never seeing or thinking about them again.”
Creative Wonder Marcii Goosen
Having grown up on farm in the Karoo, Marcii Goosen’s first canvas was nature. Over the years she has been the driving force behind (or involved with) an astounding array of creative endeavours; her current full-time position is the Creative Director for CLRS&Co, a multi-disciplinary design studio which she herself founded in 2011. As such, she spends her days working with a hand-picked team whose approach combines craftsmanship, conceptual thinking and most importantly, intuition.
As an unconventional thinker who is always creating, her inspiration comes from a multitude of influences; human behaviour, autobiographies, viking folklore and music, to name a few. She says, “Sometimes I’ll wake up with a clear, mapped-out plan in my head. It’s almost like I feed my brain with music, data, visual information and experiences and in my dream/subconscious state everything aligns to produce a map of codes that then becomes a solid idea and I make a project out of it.”
Joburg-based fashion designer Suzaan Heyns
“I used to sit with my grandmother after school and watch her sew. She used to show me how to make Barbie clothes out of her off cuts and often I would go with her to the Oriental Plaza to buy fabrics,” reminisces Joburg-based fashion designer Suzaan Heyns, whose grandmother undoubtedly played some part in her career choice.
Suzaan’s creative vision centres around artistry, uniqueness, and the bizarre. Her self-titled label is a brand that lies in innovative construction imbued with architectural structure and vintage classical femininity. If her designs were a living woman, Suzaan says they would be, “Fearless, curious, outspoken, mysterious, adventurous, strong and artistic.”
A Short Fashion Film by Tao-Farren Hefer & Kent Andreasen
Filmaker and photographers Kent Andreasen and Tao-Farren Hefer, stylist Gabriele Kannemeyer, hair and make-up artist Emma Launder and model Giannina Antonette headed out of the city to shoot stills for the very first edition of Pylot magazine, a new UK-based publication that features only analogue photography with zero beauty retouching. They decided to go the extra mile by making a short fashion film to add another dimension to the project. A two-man team of Kent shooting stills and Tao filming the arid surroundings resulted in this beautiful collection of subtle gestures, visual tricks and a unique behind the scenes glimpse of the original shoot.
Ben Johnson for L’MAD Collection
Ben Johnson’s original approach to African iconography, his distinctively recognisable language of lo-fi MS paint effects, inventive layering and sublime use of colour have been translated into a L’MAD series of limited edition, pure silk scarves. The accompanying video by Micheal Macgarry showcasing the collection is as alluring and visually imaginative as the scarves.