Fringe Arts Window - The prints

So we are aiming to change the posters in the window that I am writing/painting/collaging every couple of days.  These posters are for sale - please contact the Fringe Arts directly.

These are the 3 that have been up over the past week.

  

Event work - POLITIKA at Cape Town Book Fair

I was commissioned to create various popup pieces and artworks for a publisher called 'Politika'.  This involved a broad range of styles including popup's of old photos and cartoons, making large scale books for artworks as well other multi-faceted elements to form part of their stand.

The Project was managed by Julie Scott of ID&B and the stand was built by Ulrich Binnedel.

Exhibition at Ebony in Franschhoek

I met the lovely Dewald and Co at Design Indaba this year when they came running into my stand and promptly bought 3 artworks.  Once all the madness was over I took a drive out to Franschhoek to deliver the work.  Well, Ebony is gorgeous.  It covers 2 floors and has a very unique selection of Art and Design pieces - a lot of which I have never seen anywhere else. 


I have created 13 new pieces of work - some following my favourite style and others a little different.  The exhibition opens on the 11th of May and coincides with the Franschhoek Literary Festival.  The work will remain up for 2 weeks, maybe longer. Books used are South African in nature and explore various themes in nature and culture. 


For any enquiries do contact Ebony directly.


Ebony
4 Franschhoek Square, 32 Huguenot Street
info@ebonydesign.co.za
+27 (021) 876 4477

 ‘n Lied vir ons land

Keri Muller

Translation: A song for our land

This is a book of Afrikaans poetry issued by the Department of Education in 1967.  The list of subjects I found inside the book and thought the handwriting in ink particularly beautiful reminding me of a climbing rose.   

Southern Africa and the rest of the World

Keri Muller

I often feel cut off from the rest of the world down at the bottom of Africa and even more so when in Mozambique or other Southern African countries.  The torn page framing the map is an index page listing some of my favourite places in the rest of the world.  I always come back to Cape Town though, like most migratory bird species. The pages are from a Readers Digest World Atlas.  The birds are cut from Cape Liner.

A rare breed

Keri Muller

An old English/Afrikaans School Dictionary has been used as the folded base.  The birds have been cut from ‘Western Cape Pocket Guide to Flora’ and intertwined with pieces of copper wire.   

Aspekte van die geskiedenis van Afrika

Keri Muller

Folded pages from inside the book collaged with flowers cut from the ‘Western Cape Pocket Guide to Flora’.  Lines of Longitude and Latitude sewn with Copper wire.

Bilingual

Keri Muller

An original ‘Tweetalige Schoolwoordeboek’ cut, folded and glued.

Can you speak the Language?

Keri Muller

An ‘English Xhosa’dictionary cut, folded and glued.  Additionally a set of commemorative stamps from the 80’s have been added reflecting South Africa’s various rare commodities in that time. 

Cry the Beloved Country

Keri Muller

One of my favourite themes and books – swallows in flight represent the ultimate freedom to me.  Cut from Cape Liner and collaged into the rolled pages of this book I like to think Alan Paton would be pleased that his book is not sitting on a shelf gathering dust but rather being seen.

Hou op Kwel en begin Lewe

Keri Muller

Translation:  Stop complaining and start living

I spend a lot of time listening and observing people in my day to day life and always amazed at the amount of complaining I hear.  When I came across Dale Carnegie’s book translated into Afrikaans I just had to use it.  Inside the book was this torn out page of a Chiff Chaff – this little bird makes the funniest call that can become rather irritating a lot like complainers. The Boy Scout is from an Annual published in the 1950’s. ‘Every Moment Matters’ has become one of my personal mantras and something I think we should all remember as life is short.  Something I have to remind myself to remember!

Leaping

Keri Muller

Cut from a well thumbed School Pocket Dictionary – the leaping buck are one of my reoccuring themes.  I thoroughly enjoy the notion of running and jumping just for fun. I often think Impala are doing just that.

Dancers of the Karoo

Keri Muller

The Karoo is an incredibly beautiful, free space to me.  These ballet dancers in their various poses represent this lightness and space.  

Trekking On

Keri Muller

A well thumbed school library copy all about the Great Trek complete with the original Library card.  In the days of the Great Trek the Springbok migration still happened, unfortunately as the settlers moved inland so they hunted and killed all the animals. The forward in this book is written by Jan Smuts. 

Botanicals – Animals of the Cape Province

Keri Muller

Folded from a pocket size guide to the Animals of the Cape Province and collaged with Flowers and a bird cut from a similar guide book.  These were all printed in the 1960’s.

   
Botanicals – Proteas of the Western Cape

Keri Muller

Folded from a pocket size guide –The Protea’s of the Western Cape.   Collaged with various Proteas and the bird is a Cape Penduline Tit -  these are all cut from the Pocket Guides to the Birds and Flora of the Cape Province.  

Cavendish - The Bird of Books

The bird is 1.8m across and 1.6 high
Made from rolled books attached to 6mm MDF board
The legs and beaks are covered in book pages

Ugly boarding and now it's HAPPY

Using tin cans from the Cavendish Recycling plant and cutting them into daisies.
Really cheerful
Happy Happy Joy joy
Seemed to cheer lots of people up this morning making their way in to Cavendish
They actually spoke to me while installing
IMAGINE strangers talking to each other
In Cape Town!
And anyone can do it... nice addition to any dreary wall anywhere
Go out and make tin can daisies people

Teaching Origami

I've spent the last week basically living at Cavendish Square while putting up some paper installations - a rather surreal experience and not something I would recommend to anyone.  Though I do find it quite peaceful at about 1130 at night when no one else is there and the building seems to just hum.  Bizarre.

Anyway - from Monday to Thursday this week I have been doing Origami classes with 8 different schools from the surrounding areas assisted by various kind people (Kate, Linda, Ute - Thank you).  Vida'e Cafe kindly donated a stack of old Obrigado magazines for folding.  Groups of 20 kids at a time all clustered round the table.  The other part of this is that they also paint the boarding that is up around the escalators supervised by Lizanne.  The results have surpassed all my expectations and we are all well pleased.

Cavendish Installation project - nearly done

Cavendish square Parking Level 1 Lift Lobby - it's nearly done. 


The elements: 


Wallpaper with old books from the recycling pile


origami creepers folded from Obrigado magazines


some quotes on patience 


The best part the Plants in the empty 2 Litre bottles 


= I AM HAPPY with the result

(better photos coming soon)

The trees coming along

No we are not sponsored by Col'cachio - they just kindly gave me a bunch of pizza boxes to work with

Cavendish installation project - work in progress

Bird of rolled books  - 65 paperbacks from the recyclers - measuring 1.4m x 1.7m

Hearting things

I have been making a few of these country in a heart in a frame things for people on request - they are very sweet indeed.  Originally seen on 'notonthehighstreet'... just for the record - it ain't my idea.

The Ideas Forest moved...

to the Naspers building Foyer.  It will be there till the end of August.  If anyone knows of a School/Orphanage/Home that might benefit from having this do let me know.  I will install it again for free.

The Forest for Media24's Team Talk conference

7 trees cut from polyboard (2 to 2.7m's high)
400kg's of magazines and newspapers
Buckets of flour and water paste
50m's of leaf bunting

And a forest stretching 8 metres down the passageway entrance to the Arabella Ballroom at Hermanus

Boring passage

The trees looking a little small

Bulking up and mounting on boxes to give extra height.  Start spreading the mags and papers out to create the forest floor.  The first bits of leaf bunting go up strung between the trees and across  the passage.

The paintings on the walls got wrapped in newspaper.



And now there is a forest in the passage.

Final bit - hanging birds on the trees that will have ideas written on them by conference attendees.