Artist Blog | UK | The Salsa Creative Studio |

BLOG

Dec 6, 20162 min read

Cape Town Floriography

Cape Town Floriography

"Cape Town Floriography is a public history and art project that takes place at various flower markets in Cape Town on Heritage Day, 24 September 2016." - Nowseum Blog

About the project

Cape Town Floriography, a Nowseum project by Melanie Boehi, explores the fascinating history and influence of the flower sellers of Cape Town. The first installation was developed as a series of posters exhibited as flower wrapping papers.

"For long flower sellers have used newspaper sheets to wrap up flowers. Old newspaper was thereby given a second life. Cape Town Floriography is inspired by this recycling of newspaper, however it changes the direction of the cycle by producing a new paper that can only be read once the flowers are unpacked." - Nowseum blog

About the Design

When Melanie approached me with the task of designing a poster to use as flower wrapping, I loved

the idea. This was the perfect medium to exhibit this story, a history that most Cape Townians don't know about - even though most of them see these flower sellers daily. There was no set brief in terms of aesthetic, other than it being a black and white print, which allowed me to put some ideas forward. While experimenting, I discovered that the borders and edges of the paper would be the most visible part when wrapped. I passed the idea of illustrating a detailed flower border to Melanie who loved the idea so much that she used the border for the entire poster series.

The illustrated flowers are a mix of real, hybrid and fantasy flowers.

The posters were exhibited on Adderley Street, Trafalgar Square and The Castle of Good Hope.

And they even made the Weekend Argus!

To learn more about Cape Town Floriography, visit the Nowseum blog and read all about this wonderful project and the rich history of flower sellers in Cape Town!

https://nowseum.com/

I'd love to know what you think about this project so please leave a comment in the comments section below!

"There's Something I Must Tell You" Exhibition

I recently designed an educational resource for the iziko Museums of South Africa Slave Lodge. It serves as a catalogue and worksheet for this Sue Williamson exhibition about influential South African women.

"‘There’s something I must tell you’ is an exhibition over five galleries that was held at the Iziko Slave Lodge. It showed work done by South African artist Sue Williamson over a period of over 30 years, from 1981 to 2013. At the beginning of this period, the country was experiencing some of the harshest years of apartheid."

Design

To add interest to the open space, and to have unique elements in this publication, I illustrated simple stencil style drawings of a few of these iconic women. I used them for the cover as well as the title pages of the different series. I used hand written letters (which were part of the exhibition) as backgrounds to the images and their details for extra subtle detail to some pages.

Nokukhanya Luthuli 1904-1996

Helen Joseph

1905-1982

Amina Cachalia

1930-2013

Case no. 6831/211984

Nomzamo Winifred Madikizela-Mandela (Winnie Mandela)

1936-

Colours

I used a soft, warm, neutral peachy-cream palette. It reminds me of a warm welcoming home of a mother or grandmother. Of how influential and strong leading woman are while they convey a gentle and welcoming presence because of their nurturing and caring nature. In my life, the family leaders are all women. It's a different kind of leadership; there is no power struggle because for women it's not really about power – it's about family, the community and putting others before yourself. No show boating or beating of chests, no displays of dominance, just the pure drive to do what is best for those you care about. So that's why I chose this colour palette.