Re.Bag.Re.Use Team: (from left to right standing): Joanna Mnisi and Sakile Ndlovu. Seated (left to right): Patience Liyema and Betty Masamba. The piece formed part of Ananta Design Studio’s creative vision for the UPCYCLE initiative, where artists repurposed office furniture into beautiful functional art pieces. The ladies crocheted seven fronds using a staggering 580 audio cassette tapes to complete the project. Each frond is filled with clean plastic materials that the Re.Bag.Re.Use team can’t crochet with, such as six-pack wrappers, and torn plastic bags. The combined weight of the seven fronds totals a remarkable 47 kilograms!
These are the massive fronds that the Re.Bag.Re.Use team worked on, representing kelp. A massive thank you to the remarkable Rucita and Viveka Vassen, Founders and Designers of Ananta Design Studio for including Re.Bag.Re.Use in their incredible vision for their piece that formed part of the UPCYCLE initiative, where artists have repurposed office furniture into beautiful functional art pieces.
UPCYCLE is a project that reimagined the future world of work through circular design, which saw local artists transform discarded office furniture into bespoke art pieces. The exhibition was a collaboration between Sanlam, leading global property advisory company JLL, and its subsidiary interior design firm Tétris Design and Build – a world-class design, build and furniture business.
A staggering 580 audio cassette tapes were used to complete the fronds. Each frond was filled with clean plastic materials that the Re.Bag.Re.Use team couldn’t crochet with, such as six-pack wrappers, and torn plastic bags. The combined weight of the seven fronds totals a remarkable 47 kilograms! To put this into perspective, this is roughly equivalent to a bag of cement! A significant amount of plastic saved from ending up in landfills.
Viveka Vassen, co-founder and designer of Ananta Design Studio shares the following about their design, “The Ananta installation invites you to join us in imagining the future of the workspace as we see it: playful nature immersed spaces. A magical, sensory space that connects us back to nature, ignites creativity and sparks joy and curiosity. Creating an engaging and stimulating environment with the freedom to play, explore and experiment, we open a world of possibilities!”
Rucita Vassen, co-founder and designer adds, “Our installation is a glimpse of this imaginative magical world with colour, texture and different craft techniques creating a whimsical nature inspired landscape, from the starting point of a mundane office bin. We’ve included soft tactile surfaces appealing to our inner child’s need for a nurturing and comfortable space.”
Each frond has been decorated with beautifully designed upcycling, bead and felt work, and represent different elements of reconnecting with nature and finding inner balance.
Six ladies worked on the fronds project: Joanna Mnisi, Sakile Ndlovu, Dameris Makovere, Tapiwa Likona, Betty Masamba and Patience Liyema.
In total 23 women worked on the entire piece!