African design enthusiasts descended on Johannesburg over the weekend (1 – 3 September 2023) for the 17th edition of Handmade Contemporary, Africa’s leading design fair. For founder Lesley Hudson, it was a passion project that has grown into a region- and sector-wide mandate. 'While some might feel that Africa is a continent with extraordinary talent, and a very rich and diverse heritage, much of this is unrecognised. Increasingly, however, makers of handcrafted African luxury products have found their voice and there is an increasing demand for what they have to offer.'

With the event now an integral part of the continent’s design calendar, Handmade Contemporary 2023 was a particular tour de force for the jewellery landscape. Whilst Africa is home to much of the world’s gold, diamond and coloured gemstone reserves, jewellery artists eschewed the expected and leant into imaginative material choices, celebrating and in some instances contemporising traditional craftsmanship and articulating the myriad stories that make up this vast continent. We select some of the fair’s highlights.

Handmade Contemporary 2023 highlights

'We have a bit of a cult following and I think it is because what we do is so original,' observes Chimene Wynne, owner of Jade Melrose Arch, which is part of Jade South Africa that was founded by Karin Delport. Wynne makes one-of-a-kind pieces and whilst pearls previously took centre stage in her material choices, they have been joined by found objects from beach walks and gemstones that she often chooses to leave in their natural state for surprising juxtapositions. 'My favourite is the raw gem, and if you mix it with a pearl, it looks amazing as you’re not expecting a classic component too.'

For Rwandan luxury house Mille Collines, jewellery was a natural progression from an exceptional sustainable apparel offering, which has also seen expansion from Kigali to stores across South Africa. CEO Maye Srouji explains: 'We strategically placed sisal or bone as centrepieces to our designs. Sisal as a natural fibre has been used in traditional Rwandan crafts for centuries and we wanted to showcase its beauty and versatility.' Recycled brass rather than gold acts as the metallic counterpoint and augments further the brand’s circularity credentials.

Leigh Shakenovsky of Leigh Avenue creates jewellery that appeals to those who are drawn to uncomplicated pieces that riff on how place and memory often segue with colour. Regarding her breakout enamel collection, she notes: 'Livi’s Road is inspired by the birth of my daughter but mostly by my African heritage and the culture of fireside chats, safari, sunsets and being outside in flora and fauna. This is why each piece has very a specific title, like “Calabash Couture”, “Bohemian Baobab” or “Serengeti Sunday”.'

Seeking a way to navigate notions of identity and upend systemic injustices that may end up internalised via striking pieces might seem like an audacious call to arms, but it is one that Faith Baloyi, founder and creative director of Negritude, takes up wholeheartedly. 'When I first came across the historic Negritude movement, I thought, what a beautiful offering to the world, from this group of scholars for Africa.' In Baloyi’s hands, antique brass objects, beads, amulets and other elements she 'cosmically collides with' are fashioned by hand into contemporary takes for a future-present African Utopia.

The jewellery artists featured are but a snapshot of a larger discourse on what constitutes ‘African jewellery design’. Cross-cultural pollination, sustainable practices and vivid storytelling all have their place, but perhaps most pertinent is that the lens of enquiry and expression is truly Africa-Centric.

hmcfair.co.za

Founded by New York-born artist-photographer Roger Ballen, the Inside Out Centre for the Arts is set to become a significant landmark on bustling Jan Smuts Avenue in leafy Johannesburg (or Jozi as locals call it). Its mission is simple: exhibit, educate and promote art related to the African continent.

A project years in the making, and a boon for Jozi’s Forest Town neighbourhood, Inside Out Centre for the Arts is specifically settled near the historical Constitutional Hill and the energetic creative suburb of Rosebank. Together with the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Museum and the Joburg Contemporary Art Foundation, it forms part of a trinity of cultural and educational centres right in the hub of the city. 

The inaugural show, titled ‘End of the Game,’ will run for a minimum of one year. It grapples with the decimation of wildlife in Africa, specifically starting in the mid-1800s, through both a historical and artistic lens. Roger Ballen uses his work to delve deeper into the psychological relationship humans have with the natural world. In most cases, this relationship is ‘adversarial, exploitative and destructive, and is reflective of a dystopian world in ecological crisis’, says Ballen. 

And the show reveals exactly that. The introspective exhibition encompasses a cumulation of artefacts, paintings, drawings, film clips and documentary photographs. ‘This exhibition encourages vital discussions about our treatment of animals, wildlife management, responsible tourism and environmental stewardship in our current world,’ says Ballen, explaining that the show ‘attempts to record and highlight the historical significance and context of the “Golden Age’’ of African hunting expeditions by colonialists and powerful Western figureheads – such as Winston Churchill, FD Roosevelt, King Edward VIII and Ernest Hemingway.’

‘A central challenge in my career has been to locate the animal in the human being and the human being in the animal,’ says Ballen. ‘The rooms that I photograph represent the conflictual relationship between civilisation and nature, where opposites attract and break apart in a world built not on logic, but on irrationality. Delirium, mirage, dreams and nightmares coexist and cannot be categorized as light or dark.

‘Animals pervade my spaces: cats, dogs, rats, chickens, snakes and more. Dead and alive, big and small, wild and tame. Wherever you look, there are animals,’ he continues. ‘They appear in places that hardly belong. You cannot escape the animal. You cannot run away from the animal. The animal is deep inside. We come from the animal.’

The Inside Out Centre for the Arts was founded as a not-for-profit in 2008 – the new space is the physical manifestation of the foundation. The brutalist-inspired design of the building itself is based on the introspective idea of inside out. ‘I sometimes think that the building looks like it has been turned “inside out”,’ says Ballen, who worked closely with local architect Joe van Rooyen of JVR Architects to create this landmark building. Their vision was to give it both presence and personality – using raw concrete and plasterwork in both the interior and exterior surfaces that are seemingly intermingled. 

This approach functions as a way to create drama by concealing the entrance. Once through the threshold it is the main exhibition space that opens up into a double-volume naturally lit space with a dazzling suspended barrel. The offices on the other hand are off to the side in a theatrical cantilevered space. 

The centre will also facilitate a dynamic programme of educational talks, panel discussions, masterclasses and presentations that reflect on the current exhibition and on topics relevant to arts and culture. 

insideoutcentreforthearts.com

It's taken 15 years, but James Peech and his wife Vicky have finally realised the potential of their property in Johannesburg's upmarket Melrose suburb. And it was worth the wait.

Shaped around a former family home – a handsome 1950s heritage building topped with a curvilinear wood-shingle roof – the hotel, up until now, comprised just 16 rooms housed within a series of individual new-build annexes inserted amongst the lush tree-swathed gardens. 

Now, completing the masterplan, the property has doubled in size, with the addition of another 16 rooms, including the two-bedroom Peech Villa, set on a recently acquired patch of neighbouring land. Among the flourishing landscaped gardens, local studio Meshworks has fashioned a small village of single and duplex pavilions, their boxy profiles assembled with breeze blocks, timber slats and metal mesh screens, which create natural ventilation and bathe the pleasingly minimal interiors with natural light.

Here, Johannesburg-based Design Republic, layered a bold petrol blue and putty palette with natural textures, from Oggie timber floorboards to hand-stitched distressed leather headboards, and local furniture and craftwork, such as bed throws by African Jacquard, bedside tables by Houtlander and screen dividers, hand-woven by Bathany Home, a shelter for abused women.

And while the best of Johannesburg's restaurants are on the hotel's doorstep, it pays dividends to dine in at the newly opened Basalt, spearheaded by Freddie Dias, formerly the head chef at The Pot Luck Club in Cape Town. The restaurant's cool grey interiors, anchored by deep red velvet chairs and parquet flooring underfoot, come together to form a chic backdrop for a global menu of dishes from springbok carpaccio to yield-to-the-fork slow-roasted pork belly ricarda negra with toasted almond mole.

ADDRESS

61 North Street
Melrose
Johannesburg

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

Since it opened in 1983, the Sandton Sun hotel has capitalised on its location in Johannesburg’s Sandton quarter, informally known as Africa’s richest square mile, by luring power suits, celebrities and top brass politicians alike. The arrival of Alice & Fifth in the hotel’s basement will only raise the stakes for competitors.

Local designer Tristan Plessis Studio has unraveled the subterranean labyrinth of varying volumes to create a series of dramatic room-sets, including three bars and dining rooms. The entrance sets the tone with a bijou corridor topped by a ceiling carved from a solid piece of hand-moulded polished stainless steel to look like liquid mercury; whilst creamy wall panels curve, Inception-like, up and over plush, crescent shaped banquettes.

In the kitchen, executive chefs Justin Josephs and Jacques Cronje have conceived a contemporary African menu that is defiantly protein-based, though you should follow the rib-eye with the Malva pudding, a local baked classic of sponge and caramelised sugar.

ADDRESS

Corner Alice Lane and 5th Street

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

Further reinforcing Maboneng’s reputation as Johannesburg’s precinct of urban cool, is the new 46-room Hallmark House, a hotel and residence that occupies a 17-storey former diamond factory, now reshaped by Ghanaian British architect David Adjaye to include a lobby café, a rooftop spa, pool and bar and a soon-to-open basement jazz club and speakeasy.

The interiors, by local outfit Malica Design, have an industrial ‘Jo’burg’ vibe in the public spaces, with exposed cement ceilings and low-slung furnishings in a moody dark grey and black palette, interspersed with pops of colour and local knickknacks including a display of colourful African baskets.

Upstairs in the guestrooms, bespoke blonde wood furniture and neutral walls allow the vibrant Shweshwe fabric-covered headboards to shine through, while the private terraces, each with its own swing chair, are perfect to escape to and take in widespread views of the City of Gold. 

ADDRESS

54 Siemert Road

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

When brothers Lawrence and Tim Lai couldn’t find the Taiwanese street food they craved in Johannesburg, their solution was to open a restaurant. The resulting debut of Momo Baohaus has fast pinned itself as one of Johannesburg’s leading Asian eateries.

Wholly designed by its owners, the naturally lit Greenside space (with a sister establishment in Illovo) was centred around a minimalist aesthetic, canvassed by a signature wall mural against the crisp white backdrop. Clean lines and a black and white palette are balanced by the exposed brick wall of the kitchen and geometric bar patterning, hand-painted by the owners and illuminated by overhung globed filament lighting. Indigenous Kiaat wood tables decorate the charcoal flooring, diffused by colour shots of custom-coated yellow chairs and bar stools.

The locally made ceramics were glazed using a traditional Chinese method, and host a menu rooted in the melting pot of Taiwanese street food. The immense food culture draws flavours and techniques from Chinese, Japanese and Korean styles. Order plates to share for the table, making sure to try the Chairman’s Bao, with braised pulled lamb shoulder, pickled shiitake, hoisin and toasted sesame, or the Szechuan-inspired Firecracker Chicken.

ADDRESS

139 Greenway

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

With hotel spas becoming something of a staple fixture, properties are jockeying to outdo each other with new-fangled, and at times gimmicky, attractions. 

Thankfully the newly relaunched spa in Johannesburg’s Saxon hotel, offers the best of spa culture, without the unnecessary bells and whistles. An equal reverence to science and human awareness is evident in the collaboration of modern therapies with ancient techniques for an experience that is a celebration of simplicity. Here, eight treatment rooms guide guests through a holistic journey that also includes access to a series of thermal spaces, including a steam room, heated hydro pool, hammam centre, plunge pool, a Himalayan salt sauna and outdoor treatment zone.

Yet it never feels overwhelming. A thoughtful continuity of design features, such as the use of locally handcrafted Himalayan salt, purported to ionise surrounding spaces, brings cohesion to the two-floor spa. Recycled glass chandeliers too, make a frequent appearance; the minerals used are said to purify the air, stimulate circulation and increase energy levels. And throughout the space, interior designer Stephen Falcke has brought together dark wood, copper, linen and water for an aesthetic that is warm and rustic. The result is a soothing space that feels a world away from the clatter of the city and truly in touch with the holistic disciplines of a traditional spa. 

ADDRESS

36 Saxon Road

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

Located in the centre of Johannesburg’s Keyes Art Mile, a new luxury design and lifestyle hub, Marble has fast become one of the city’s most buzzed about dining spots, equally distinct for its collaborations with South African artists and artisans as it is for award-winning chef David Higgs’ creative reimagining of wood-fired cooking.

The result is a space that is more of a destination than a restaurant, with a theatrical open kitchen pulling in local crowds. The menu’s fire theme crosses over into the decor — masterminded by interior decorator Irene Kyriacou — which local creatives have interpreted in a range of ways; from the wood-fired wall tiles by Mervyn Gers to ceramic dolos by artist Peter Mthombeni. Elsewhere, leather-upholstered banquettes are interspersed amongst marble tables and sit beneath photography by Cape Town artist Krisjan Rossouw.

And then there’s Higgs’ menu. Led by the national penchant for cooking on open fire - or a braai - the offerings focus on South African cuisine prepared on a grand wood-fired grill, imported from Michigan, in an open kitchen that offers diners a front row seat. We suggest booking a lunch-time spot by the window, where views of the city, all the way to Magaliesburg, can be enjoyed while tucking into dishes such as the perfectly prepared rib-eye with bone marrow, or lamb cutlets with chimichurri.

ADDRESS

Corner Keyes & Jellicoe Avenue

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

Luxury African tea brand, Yswara, has now started brewing its own produce at a new tea room and flagship store in Johannesburg.

Housed in the recently launched Cosmopolitan, a hip retail and lifestyle hub in the emerging cultural neighbourhood Maboneng, the cosy space is a modern take on a traditional Moroccan tea room, with a soft feminine palette of pale pink and copper, that compliments the designs of the Tea Time accessories and fragrance collection, also for sale in the store.

Parquet flooring underfoot, along with furnishings sourced from local designer Mia Widlake’s Studio 19, come together to form a serene retreat in which tea fanatics can sample the range of brews sourced from all over Africa by owner, Swaady Martin.

ADDRESS

Corner Commissioner & Albrecht Streets

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

Johannesburg’s turbulent past – which resulted in an abandoned CBD – pushed businesses into setting up shop in and around the suburbs, creating a somewhat unique urban structure. It comes as no surprise then, that the affluent Sandhurst neighbourhood is home to the city’s top hotel, The Saxon. Situated on a quiet, leafy street, lined with impossibly high walls, the property’s imposing gate and brigade of guards are effective at rousing an air of anticipation for the sprawling 10 acres of lush, landscaped gardens that lie beyond. 

There is, however, no sense of extravagance about the space. Polished interiors in an earthy palette of biscuit and stone hues are enhanced with antique furnishings, local artwork and tribal objects.

All of the 50 guest rooms and suites overlook the garden, but for the full experience, we’d plump for one of the three standalone villas – each with their own plunge pools. 

After a day of pampering in the spa, head to the main terrace for a pre-prandial cocktail overlooking the slick infinity pool, before heading to one of the two restaurants to indulge in a leisurely meal, finished off - of course - with a nightcap in the recently launched whisky bar.

ADDRESS

36 Saxon Road

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

It’s not every day a luxury hotel opens its doors in Johannesburg, so we’ve been looking forward to the launch of the Four Seasons Westcliff, ever since the hotel group announced that it was going to make its Southern African debut. Occupying the former Westcliff hotel – known locally as the Pink Lady for the colour of its façade – the 117-room property has been given a complete overhaul by Johannesburg-based firms RSL Architects and Jacket Interiors, who added a modern African twist to the brand’s traditional aesthetic, by commissioning local artists such as Hannelie Cotzee, to punctuate the public spaces with dramatic bespoke pieces. Set over eight acres of land, with views across the city’s famed green canopy, the hotel has all culinary bases covered, with five restaurants and an intimate wine bar. Not to forget the spa- with nine treatment rooms and two swimming pools, there is a chance guests will never leave the property.

ADDRESS

67 Jan Smuts Avenue
P.O. Box 2700
Saxonwold 2132
Johannesburg

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

Looking past the arid African landscape, formidable concrete motorways, impossibly high walls and general grime of the city at street level, Johannesburg is a surprisingly green metropolis, with over 2,000 parks scattered across the highveld terrain.

All the more reason then, to visit the new Four Seasons Hotel. Perched at the top of a ridge in the affluent Westcliff neighbourhood, the property overlooks the city’s famed green canopy with sweeping views of the northern suburbs, punctuated by the brutal concrete Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital in the distance, which dominates the skyline.

A hit with both visitors and locals alike, the best spot to soak up the vistas is at the hotel’s two restaurants; head to Flames for a casual nibble where meat and fish are traditionally cooked over a braai or for a special occasion, the aptly named Views does not disappoint. Designed by London-based outfit, Blacksheep, understated, luxe interiors enhance the cityscape outside, while chef Dirk Gieselmann turns out perfectly constructed dishes from sea bass and caviar with potatoes and beetroot to succulent oxtail and asparagus.

We suggest whiling away a sunny Sunday on the terrace with a glass of champagne, followed by a late lunch and dessert on the outdoor sofas.

Address

67 Jan Smuts Avenue

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

Anti Est is the collaborative effort of Nathan Reddy and David Cohen of brand agency Grid, along with audio branding specialist Paul Shafer and local property developer Adam Levy. The group of four enlisted the skills of local architect Emilio Eftychis, who enhanced the former warehouse's exposed brick and concrete to create a luxurious space with bespoke lighting, reclaimed parquet floors and a steel bar with a dramatic origami effect. Serving up a menu of cocktails from Roxanne Reid, one of South Africa's top mixologists, and a range of gourmet pizzas and bar snacks, Anti Est is the perfect place to soak up Johannesburg's creative buzz.

ADDRESS

73 Juta Street
Braamfontein

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS