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Release Date: September 2016
Format: 24 × 30 cm
Features: Full colour, hardcover, 336 pages
Language: English
ISBN: 978-3-89955-641-4
EUR/USD/GBP Shop Price: €39.90
Catalogue Price: €39.90 / $60.00 / £40.00

Publisher:
Gestalten
Mariannenstr. 9-10
D-10999 Berlin
Germany
+49 (0)30-72613 2000
http://gestalten.com

AFRICA RISING

-Fashion, Design and Lifestyle from Africa

Gestalten & Design Indaba

Vibrant, bold, and enigmatic. Africa Rising showcases the work of Africa’s young creatives alongside more established artists from the voluptuous continent’s vibrant metropolises.
 
About This Book
The African artistic spirit extends far beyond the canvas and studio; a new wave of African creatives is on the rise and making a name for itself in design, fashion, photography, and architecture across Africa and abroad. While the colours, patterns, and crafts are profoundly rooted in African tradition, young designers infuse their creations with a delightfully discordant edge making them contemporary, unique, and truly pieces of African design.
 
Africa Rising calls stereotypes and archaic clichés into question. A comprehensive portrait of Africa manifests from marrying Peter Mabeo’s furniture made from indigenous wood or Nobukho Nqaba’s body of photographic work that handles the themes of migration and foreignness through the clever use of everyday objects or the publicly-minded architecture of David Adjaye with the up-and-coming threads of Selly Raby Kane’s energetic fashion line or the soundscapes of Spoek Mathambo’s Fantasma that fix Bantu lyrics to computerized beats.
 
Insightful essays from experts and artisans contextualize each portrait and provide insight into talented pioneers, outstanding projects, and the way craft can be a catalyst for social and economic developments. The volume is co-edited by Design Indaba: a multifaceted design platform that garners worldwide critical acclaim for their annual design conference held in Cape Town. Africa Rising celebrates the way art strengthens and unifies cultures and, most importantly, invokes the multi-faceted richness of Africa.
 
Explore Africa’s worldwide ripple effect of inspiration, creativity, and artistic community.
 
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Posted 21 September 2016

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I really enjoyed reading this book from the first letter to the last.
Together with excellent photos the book is organized in the chapters: Preface, Bold New Voices, Sensitive Structures, Tasteful Encounters, Beyond Identity, Global Threads and Index.

In the preface text Lauren Napier wrote: “For the most part, the African design industry is still formal in nature and relies on craft skills, industrial processes, as well as being relatively unavailable, subject to power outages (or lack of power supply altogether), and the transportation infrastructure is inconsistent. It means that African products need to have low production costs and requirements, even when they aim for great impact. Innovation within these parameters is producing sensational work.”
 
Here the craftsmen, artists and designers and the editors are entitled to a large compliment for the great products that has been made, found, photographed and described.
One can see all possibilities reading this well-made and laid-out book. And I totally agree with the preface’s conclusion: “Craft can be a catalyst for social and economic developments. Equally exhausted and motivated, from working under the burden of misnomers and archaic stereotypes, the creative communities of Africa are ready to overcome this traditional racism and ignorance. They have the strength to start nearly anew; they do not need rescue or a colonizing presence. They are their own salvation and this is in every nuance of their craft. Africa is on the rise.”

I am sure this book can help to connect the makers with the trade and consumers, as the products are original, usable, fresh and well-made.
With architecture, furniture, fashion, textile design, interiors with household attributes and art, the patterns, colours and adornments tickle our imagination shaped between tradition and the future. The pages Challenging Labels introduce the craftsmen and designers as the Index helps the reader to find the names and labels.
So, this book is a must! Read it, see the potential and give the designers a place in our lives. The sun will shine forever and it will put a smile on your face enriching our numb lives.
 
Angela van der Burght
 

pages of the book Africa Rising

pages of the book Africa Rising

Pages of the book Africa Rising

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