Two Long Tables - towards an authentic fine dining experience.

Two Long Tables inspired this blog post.

The first being a fine dining experience I enjoyed twice in the passed six months. A local celebrity, television presenter, Rita van der Heever, is the mastermind of a private dining experience, presented to close friends and associates in the comfort of her own home.  By invitation only, one receives a menu and the address and all you have to do is arrive to enjoy a fun filled evening with deliciously prepared and much loved comfort food with likeminded individuals. 

Surrounded by art and seated at a one-of-a-kind, bespoke Bloukrans Table, created and manufactured by Pierre Cronje, already makes for a unique dining experience.

This iconic design was inspired by Pierre’s experience working on the Bloukrans as a civil engineer. Seating 18 hungry stylish folks creates for a festive interactive dining experience like no other. (as sited at the Pierre Cronje website - follow the link above)

Rita van der Heever serves a three-course meal with panache, catering for all the senses. Homemade dishes are the best – tried and tested they are legendary – shaped and reworked over time - to perfection - and so it should be. For the love of food, wine and style - at the core of a fine dining experience. For more information to join the SMULPAPE  - send though your request to ritavandenheever@gmail.com and you to can enjoy the fine dining experience.

What should one expect from a contemporary hospitality dining experience – albeit a home-industry setting and or your favourite restaurant downtown.

Food and design is experiencing far greater synergy as we embrace design and thinking through craft in the design and manufacture of innovative products for a holistic dining experience. Thinking through drawing, in developing concepts and design ideas, it is important to gain knowledge of the type of food and the products that support the envisaged dining experience.

  

The recipes that will make up the menu are as important as the design style of the ceramic serving dishes. Having knowledge of the history and an understanding of ceramic traditions as well as ceramic manufacturing techniques and methods all contribute to an authentic product development in support of the dining experience.  

The Ceramic discipline is deeply rooted in a broad range of art, design and craft traditions; extending from the east to the west, including Europe and more importantly Africa in between – laying the foundation for product development no matter the menu and or recipes to be cooked.

Fine dining and wining is a stylish affair; catering for all the senses, including visual, smell, touch and taste. However ergonomics and tactile qualities are as valuable as complimentary surface decoration. All-important applied ingredients in defining the gestalt of a contemporary designer maker approach to creative cultural product options (Concepts and ideas). 

Knowledge and an understanding of craft traditions is an advantage in the design for manufacture products, especially if we celebrating the handmade. It is even more important when we redefine food and design related products from a home-based cooking and dining experience. 

This needs to be seen in the context of the envisaged choice of ceramic dishes, its forms, shapes and surface development. Decoration is no longer a crime as we embrace an authentic approach to product design development and manufacture (in direct contrast to Modernism’s expressed view – ‘that decoration is a crime’).

Whether one is a ceramist, developing a new product range and or a passionate chef or confectionist, it is essential that both sides of the spectrum are addressed - to plan and implement a successful entrepreneurial business proposal. 

The restaurants interior (place – tables, chairs and textiles), the dining style; the food, wine and serving dishes (the space) and the ambiance, all contribute to a holistic eatery – an integrated authentic approach to wining and dining.  

Making money cooking at home is an option considered by a number of individuals at a time when cash is tight and extra income is required to combat tough times – cost increases on all fronts. However when it is your passion and you consider yourself to be the next master chef – then this might just be a creative way forward to generate extra income. Selecting the right dinner service and serving dishes are all part of the integrated fine dining experience.

100% Design South Africa held in association with Decorex 2014 Johannesburg, this passed weekend, presented the right opportunity to gain knowledge and insight into a wide range of product design options for your dining room table. For more information see alternative blog FADAGallery administered by the blogger.

This brings me to the second Long Table, a collaboration of 14 SA ceramists including well-known ceramists Nic Sithole, Andile Dyalvane, Mervyn Gers and the talented and master craftsperson Anthony Shapiro, that took first prize in the category Best Product Design. The stand was coordinated by ART in the Forest and incorporated a broad range of ceramic products in a wide variety of ceramic techniques and methods of construction, including surface decoration. The unique display consisted of wallpaper images of forests emulating the surroundings of the Cape Town based studio, ART in a Forest (images seen above).

Christ playing football; Hlungwani Retrospective at UJ Art Gallery – A tribute to the national treasure.

It is not often that one is guided, led and or waved on by God’s hand into the creative sanctuary of one of South Africa’s most revered artists. Sculptor, preacher and visionary; a diverse range of roles ascribed to one of South Africa’s most admired creative icons; Jackson Xidonkani Hlungwani at UJ Art Gallery, Mon - Fri: 09:00 -16:00 and Sat: 09:00 - 13:00. Exhibition closes on 16 July 2014. 

One with God, nature and his community, he transformed his hometown space and place into a site-specific Spiritual Mountain, titled “New Jerusalem. His massive, carved and sculpted platter (meat trough) stands upright, displayed to invite you to feast on his relentless creative appetite.

Driven by his call to serve and prepare spiritual feasts (manna from heaven) Hlungwani, fused Christian beliefs and Tsonga rituals and traditions to create a synergy between a life lived and dreamt.  His extraordinary creative works of animals, human, Biblical and plant images, in the words of Leibhammer (curator of this exhibition), ‘are fanciful, hieratic, somber or ceremonial. They also recall a range of other religious modes, such as Medieval, Romanesque, Oriental and traditional African art and architecture (2014).

The curator of this exhibition, Nessa Leibhammer, and the director, Anneli Dempsey, of the University of Johannesburg Art Gallery have exploited the internal exhibition space to great effect. The narrow space at the entrance of the building compels the viewer to engage the artist’s installation as if on route to the sanctuary of God, situated at the bottom end of the gallery – the widest and most expanded part of the internal space, the width of the entire building.

A large window at this end of the gallery faces north, and is masked with a rural landscape scene, light filters through to shroud the mythical works in a spiritual ambience, in keeping with the artist’s intent for the site-specific sculptural installation.

Hlungwani tells of a revelatory experience that changed his life: one night in 1978 the devil shot arrows through his legs. He managed to get rid of one of the arrows but the other stuck fast. He became so ill that he decided to kill himself. Fortunately, before he could, Jesus appeared before him and told him three things: he would be healed; must serve God all his life and he would see God. Later he founded his own church that he called ‘Yesu Galeliya One Aposto in Sayoni Alt and Omega’. (Art Talk – volume 14 Issue 2, October 2013).

This personal spiritual awakening (baptism in fire) quickened Hlungwani to construct New Jerusalem - a pilgrimage route up the hill along which believers could walk (images above). Near the top they could find the Altar to Christ and the Altar to God, comprising stone platforms with sculptures of God, Christ, angels such as Gabriel II, and a ‘map for God’ (page 5 - MTN brochure ). The Altar to Christ is permanently on display at the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) whilst the Altar to God is in the permanent collection of the Wits Art Museum.

It took 30 years to visualise and realise his carved and constructed vision of New Jerusalem. In the heart of the gallery space, the curator has alluded to recreating Hlungwani’s sacred space, using a large-scale wallpaper image and a number of sculptural works. Ironically Hlungwani’s divinity is fittingly represented in the work titled Christ playing football – no doubt to coincide with the soccer world cup in Brazil.

Christ playing football. Hlungwani Restrospective at UJ; a tribute
sponsored by the MTN Foundation. 

In the words of Ricky Burnett, to the patient and inquisitive viewer, prepared to respond to the’…fancies that are curled around these images….’ Hlungwani’s work can become both a gateway to this Tsonga ancestry and to world culture.

A tribute to Jackson Hlungwani, this exhibition started its journey at the Polokwane Art Museum, a retrospective of 45 works, curated to provide the local community access to his works on a large scale. Few have seen or experienced his work in a comprehensive display. I first encountered his work in Newtown in 1989, at a solo exhibition shrouded in controversy, sponsored by BMW (South Africa) (PTY) Limited and compiled by their then arts advisor Ricky Burnett.

In retrospect, one cant begin to imagine what would have happened to the works and the ‘New Jerusalem’ had the wide range of sculptures, objects and panels not not been purchased by museums, galleries and art collectors at the time. What is exciting is that this inclusive exhibition is on view for a few weeks only at the University of Johannesburg’s Art Gallery.

MTN Foundation is the sole sponsor of this must see exhibition (Art Talk perfect for school excursions), a fitting tribute to a national treasure whose works, stylisation, art and craftsmanship will be forever inspire me in my creative endeavours. Site-specific, this installation crosses disciplines and integrates art, craft and design reminiscent of time when each and every artifact has “its roots in cultural contexts in which art was congruent with life, and in which artistry was integrated with utility” (Davidson, Art and Ambiguity. 1991:18).