“I think that, at the heart of all my bodies of work there always lies the sense of belonging. Whether it is in this land, whether it is within yourself and also within the day-to-day routines.” Words: Dan Charles Not long after leaving her studio in Woodstock, my phone buzzed with a barrage of texts from the artist Alka Dass. She had sent me an assortment of screenshots and links to all of the poems that we had spent a good portion of the afternoon gushing over while drinki

How do you write a myth? With difficulty, I’ve found. It’s not that there is little to say about the one-time nightclub photographer Billy Monk. His short but spectacular life has spawned a veritable archive of hundreds of photographs and thousands of words, many of them rumours. Nevertheless, the abundance of the archive is refracted through an abruptly premature death, rendering the man a kaleidoscopic figure: never fixed, always colourful.  Words: Mia McCarthy  To start:

Why Philip Kramer makes. Award-winning designer Philip Kramer fantasises about full-time employment. “I have a fantasy where I earn a salary. Yeah, I'll tell you that. I have a fantasy where, like, it's the 28th (of the month) and I have R50,000, and I have my expenses covered, and my job does not require me to spend half the money I make on the job itself. It’s like, you don't work in an office, and then they're like, Phil, it’s your turn to buy paper for the office, and you

A Forgotten Story of South African Garden Cities and the Quest for Affordable Housing. “Perhaps [building ‘smart cities’ is a way] of ignoring the old stupid cities that we already have…” Ivan Vladislavic  It’s always tickled me that one of Cape Town’s suburban shopping centres is named after a British utopian socialist urban-planner from the late Victorian era. This is, of course, the Howard Centre in the heart of Pinelands. It was named for Sir Ebenezer Howard OBE (1850-192

TOYOTA LAND CRUISER 300  FOR THOSE WHO SEE A VEHICLE not merely as transport, but as an extension of taste, ambition, and lifestyle, the Toyota Land Cruiser 300 is in a class of its own. In South Africa, where the road shifts seamlessly from pristine coastline to rugged hinterland, this SUV promises both sophistication and capability without compromise.  A Statement of Presence  From the moment it appears on the horizon, the Land Cruiser 300 commands attention. Its bold grill

Despite six decades of documenting South Africa’s history, Ranjith Kally is not a household name. His legacy deserves to be remembered and his name etched into history books. Kally’s images span a time period of 1946-2010 and his diverse repertoire captures the South Asian community in KwaZulu Natal, political heroes, labour, apartheid, protests, jazz, beauty contests, street-life, sports and other forms of social history. In it, we find a kind of genuine solidarity and toget

I'm sitting on the floor, surrounded by his life. Dust and detritus everywhere costume fragments, etching plates, drawings, photographs, paintings. The birds are loud outside, and so is the sea. It's quiet otherwise. Just me and the accumulated weight of it all. There’s a sign he used to make and stick up on the building site of our childhood home, where I grew up: “Mind Your Mind.” A warning about bumping your head. I feel mine bumping against something heavier now—the archi

AN INTERVIEW WITH EMBROIDERY ARTIST DANIELLE CLOUGH Danielle Clough has given up her iPhone. Well, sort of. “I’ve noticed that my attention is very fractured because of my phone, so I got a light phone a few months ago, and I am loving it,” she says. We’re about halfway through our mid-August Zoom interview, and we’ve reached the crux of the matter. Danielle – gracious, open and generous with her time – is dialing in from Paradigm gallery in Philadelphia, where she’d just set

An Unbelievable Sketch of Sir David De Villiers Graaff, the first Afrikaner Mogul “Graaff fulfilled an ideal that had taken root among some wealthy business people internationally by the end of the 19th century - that wealthy people had a moral duty to start giving away part of their fortune during their lifetime. The American steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie was probably the first industrialist to openly declare, with scorching judgement in his ‘Gospel of Wealth’, that those who

The spindle, whorl & wheel are tools, cognitive artifacts and archetypes that have come to create the modern human mind. For tools are creators of worlds. This month I'm going to spin a real ramble of a yarn. It seems fitting—I've always been drawn to cloth, to the art of textiles. I come from a long line of people with all kinds of sensory sensitivities, and as such was raised to appreciate the weave, quality and the breathability of a fibre. I also come from a long line of

Before you first enter Veld and Sea, you would have driven around the Klaasjagersberg mountains in Cape Point, past the southern communities of Muizenberg, Kalk Bay, and Simon’s Town to arrive at an innocuous yet sprawling patch of land where Veld and Sea sits. Words / Photos: Kim M Reynolds Its founder and lead educator, Roushanna Gray, would have welcomed you with a special tea blend specific to her, which is served to every visitor to Veld and Sea. I received this tea duri

A Legacy Reimagined Few timepieces carry as much heritage as Omega’s Moonwatch, the chronograph that went to the moon and cemented its...

Spanning centuries, Motherhood: Paradox and Duality showcase works from historical paintings to contemporary pieces. Traditional depictions are juxtaposed with modern interpretations that challenge stereotypes, reclaim narratives and give voice to the marginalized maternal experiences.   Motherhood is not just private - it is a societal cornerstone that influences the economies, politics and cultural structures. As South Africa navigates colonial legacies, economic disparitie

Words: Mia McCarthy In the voorkamer of the original Bosjes manor house, someone has framed an unfinished lace pattern. The loose threads...

The Ultimate Open-Top Escape There’s something about South Africa that begs for a convertible. The winding sweep of Chapman’s Peak, the...

There’s no better place to be out and about in South Africa than Durban in winter. Especially this past week and more! It’s school...

“Joy is an act of resistance.” – Toi Derricotte The unabashed bluntness of Moonchild Sanelly’s music reminds me of a line from  riot...

Everything we know starts at the source of feeling – emotions, physical touch, sight, and smell all feed into knowledge. You know a lemon...

BALVARO - Made for those who lead. Each piece is handmade, allowing natural markings and textures to shine — developing even more...

“The Portuguese have a strong, often too strong, sense of the past; the great nineteenth-century liberal historian, Alexandre...