Petra Diamonds – Cullinan Diamond Mine – Boodles Site Visit

Boodles, the globally-renowned sixth generation family business, is pioneering sustainability in the diamond and jewellery industry, using technology to trace each diamond and working closely with their workers and the mines to ensure a healthy environment for both the community and the land. Here, Honour and Jody Wainwright, descendants of the founders of Boodles, speak to Samantha Welsh about the company’s values and commitment to sustainable practices

LUX: What are Boodles’ values that make you a leader among the ‘best of British’ luxury brands?
Honour Wainwright: and Jody Wainwright: Boodles’ principal point of difference is that we are a sixth-generation family business in operation since our founding in 1798. I am the sixth generation and my twin brother and two cousins also work for the business. We prioritise looking after our clients and host up to 250 events each year for them. Events give us an opportunity to entertain our loyal customers, allow the Directors to get to know them, to give them a lovely day out and to thank them in person for their loyalty. We also value design and currently have six in-house designers, two based in our flagship New Bond Street store, and four at Head Office in Liverpool. We launch a High Jewellery collection each year, this year’s concept being ‘A Family Journey: Around Europe in 10 Days’ inspired by a trip our Chairman, Nicholas Wainwright undertook to buy stones, meet suppliers and gain inspiration for the collection, in so doing replicating the trip taken by his father in 1962.

Craftsmanship is at the core of Boodles. All Boodles jewellery is designed and hand-finished in the UK at our London workshops. We also use Single Mine Origin gold in all of our jewellery, which comes from the Yanfolila mine in Mali. Boodles know that sustainability and traceability is extremely important. Inevitably, our younger customers value this more and we therefore regard it as something that is essential for our own peace of mind, but also an investment in the future of our business. We also launched a high jewellery collection called ‘Peace of Mined’ featuring diamonds from the Cullinan Mine extracted only weeks before the collection launched.

LUX: You share Boodles’ passion and reputation for offering inimitable stones; what are the primary considerations when selecting a stone?
HW & JW: Boodles are unique as when sourcing stones we usually buy the rough diamonds direct from the mine. At Boodles we are looking for exceptional gemstones, Jody Wainwright, our Director of Precious Gemstones and Diamonds, says a stone has to ‘talk’ to him.

© Ben Phillips

LUX: What is your ‘mine-to-market’ process that transforms a rough mineral into a personal treasure?
HW & JW: At Boodles, this process begins with our directors hand-picking and sourcing stones from mines and suppliers, whom we have been dealing with for many generations. They are then taken to our London workshop where they are cut by Boodles’ master diamond cutter, Clive, who we call our ‘5th C’ extending the traditional 4Cs grading system. The stones are skilfully polished, set by our in-house designers, and transported onward to our UK showrooms for display

LUX: How has the Boodles approach to partnerships succeeded in creating an influential U/HNW ecosystem?
HW & JW: From gallery exhibitions to horse racing, Boodles is known for the sheer variety of its events and their number, – we hosted 250 events last year. After a fantastic inaugural year in 2022, our partnership as lead sponsor for the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup was renewed in 2023. At the home of Jump Racing, the Boodles pink logo was omnipresent throughout the Festival’s ITV broadcast. This year’s partnership was launched through a photo shoot with 2022’s Gold Cup Winner Rachael Blackmore on London’s iconic ‘Bond Street with previous Gold Cup Winner, Native River. As the first female jockey to win the Gold Cup and BBC’s World Sport Star of the Year in 2021, Rachael is the perfect embodiment of a Boodles Brand Ambassador. It is no surprise that Boodles will be partnering with the Gold Cup again in 2024 to celebrate its highly anticipated centenary. It provides a special day out for our clients and an opportunity for them to attend a world-renowned sporting event whilst allowing the Boodles team to really get to know their clients and their families.

2023 also saw Boodles present our third garden at the Chelsea Flower Show, in collaboration with esteemed British garden designer, Tom Hoblyn. ‘The Boodles Best of British Garden’ was awarded a Silver-Gilt medal. Post-Covid, sports events resumed: Boodles’ warm-up for Wimbledon concluded its 19th edition within genteel surroundings at Stoke Park, we had a successful pop-up tournament at Quinta do Lago Resort in the Algarve, and The Boodles Boxing Ball returned, raising more money than ever for charity, and the list goes on.

LUX: How did the partnership between Boodles and the Cullinan Mine begin?
HW & JW: The Cullinan mine is very special to Boodles. It was visited by my great uncle, the late Anthony Wainwright, during one of his many expeditions overseas in search of fine stones. He found it magical, laden with mysteries — and shared tales of the jewels in its depths with his grandson, my cousin. When Jody was just a small boy, Anthony died and his son Nicholas followed on in his footsteps, visiting the mine in the mid-1990s. He returned equally enchanted — and his experience of the Cullinan Mine inspired Jody with a new suite of legends.

Petra Diamonds – Cullinan Diamond Mine – Boodles Site Visit

I went down the Cullinan Mine with my parents last February and had an amazing experience. They don’t open the mine to anyone other than principal shareholders. My twin brother and cousins have also recently visited the mine and seeing the process of mining a Cullinan diamond has been fascinating.

The story is fantastic and Boodles have a passion for these stones. Each stone is securely helicoptered to the Johannesburg Head Office, then onward to our London diamond cutters, then into our shops, so there is a total chain of custody.

We find that customers love to know that their Boodles piece featuring a Cullinan diamond was mined only 6 months ago. We create a lovely book charting the progress of the stone through all the stages of refinement into the final finished piece of jewellery.

LUX: What can you share about upcoming developments?
HW & JW: We have discussed opportunities for potential international event partnerships in Florida, Texas, Bermuda and Barbados. We are partnering with a third gold mine which opens up in Guinea in Q4, and Jody will attend the official launch. This, together with Yanfolila Mine mentioned earlier in Mali, and Ity Mine in Côte d’Ivoire have each received independent certification to an internationally recognised responsibility standard, so that every ounce of Single Mine Origin (SMO) gold comes with a fully auditable QR code that traces its origins and journey. We are working towards all our diamonds being fully traceable and currently we have a large selection from the Cullinan Mine in South Africa. A number of our larger diamonds now also come from mines such as the Kao Mine in Lesotho, South Africa, and the Gahcho Kué Diamond Mine in Canada. We are also beginning to look at some new mines that uphold high sustainability standards and share their efforts through their respective websites.

Find out more: boodles.com

William Kentridge is one of the great artists to span the last century and this one. Recently the subject of solo retrospectives at the Royal Academy of Art in London and The Broad in LA, the South African maestro sits down with LUX Editor-in-Chief Darius Sanai to discuss extremism, absurdity and politics in art

Sitting with William Kentridge ahead of our interview, as an assistant takes our order for coffee and biscuits, I can’t help playing a little game with myself. What, I wonder, would I think the great artist did for a living, if I didn’t know already?

We are backstage at the Barbican Centre, London, in the staff canteen, a windowless space that is empty for the moment as it is mid-morning. We have seated ourselves at a small square table in a corner, beneath a couple of framed newspaper cuttings of theatre reviews. Kentridge is wearing a white collared shirt and navy round-neck sweater – as, coincidentally, am I. Well built, with plenty of white-grey hair, slightly tousled and prominent white eyebrows, distinguished and just a tad authoritarian in his demeanour, he gives the vibe of being a professional.

Maybe he is a lawyer, like his parents, two of the most celebrated human-rights lawyers in his native South Africa? His father, Sir Sydney Kentridge, represented Nelson Mandela at the Rivonia trial of 1964, at the height of the apartheid system, which saw the ANC leader jailed for 27 years for campaigning for racial equality. Sydney, now 100, only retired in 2013 at the age of 90. William’s mother, Felicia, who died in 2015, founded South Africa’s Legal Resources Centre, which gave legal aid to those being prosecuted by the apartheid state.

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But no; William Kentridge looks like a doctor. That’s it. I feel like I’m sitting with a veteran family doctor, a GP who has seen years of woes and is used to answering the same questions over and over. There’s his dryness, the sense that his mind has experienced the best and worst of humanity, his ability to anticipate a question and have an answer ready, delivered in a highly articulate, slightly deadpan way.

My silly thought exercise is no more than that. Artists come in types as varied as humanity itself. And I already know that Kentridge comes from a highly learned, cultured family of Jewish humanist professionals. But still, it does connect with something else: the breadth of knowledge, reading and intellect that is packed into Kentridge’s works.

In many ways, this old white heterosexual male (by current societal definitions), with a specialism in charcoal drawings, is an unlikely global artist of the moment. His show was the centrepiece of the Royal Academy of Arts in London last autumn, and he had a similar solo show at the equally prestigious The Broad in Los Angeles after that. Much of the political and societal challenges he explores are from the last century: apartheid, the Soviet Union. Kentridge himself is 68 this year.

And yet his works, which range from charcoals to animations, vast tapestries to sculptures, theatre shows to his poster-like rubrics, have never had more relevance in a world where the absurd is becoming integrated into the cultural norm, and where the Enlightenment liberal humanism he displays is being sidelined by winds of unreason.

Coffee delivered and biscuits to hand (which are being nibbled at by Kentridge), I ask him exactly what type of artist he is. He is famous for his charcoal drawings, but he also creates stop-motion videos, animations, tapestries, opera and theatre productions, operatic films, operatic historic films… we are meeting at the Barbican because he is directing a series of short diverse performances here, developed by artists at his The Centre for the Less Good Idea in Johannesburg, which would, I tell him, for the uninformed viewer seem like quite a different art form to drawings. How would he explain what he does, in a nutshell, say to an ancestor from 100 years ago?

“I would say I make drawings, which would be familiar from 100 years ago. Sometimes those drawings are set in motion as animated film, so, if we’re in the 1890s they might have recognised that. Sometimes those projected images are used as backgrounds for theatre performances, which they would have known from 18th-century theatre-projection techniques. And so sometimes they shift between drawing and animation and theatre production and sculpture. But they all start off as drawing. Drawing is the heart of it. Even if it’s working with an actor onstage, the logic is that of making a drawing.”

There is a precision in his answer, almost jarring with its immediacy. He gives thoughtful answers but doesn’t seem to take time to think – a sign of a sharp mind.

Walk around one of Kentridge’s grand retrospectives, like the one at the RA, or the simultaneous selling show, “Oh To Believe in Another World”, around the corner at Goodman Gallery in Mayfair, and you immediately notice how prominent the themes of politics and society are in his works. At the RA, a 1997 animation playing on a loop, Ubu Tells the Truth, referred to the horrors of apartheid South Africa, including state-sponsored murders. In Goodman Gallery, we saw glimpses of the brutality of Soviet communism in his latest film (of the same name as the exhibition) and other works.

And yet there is a feeling that Kentridge, while amplifying these extremes of negative humanity, is not ideological himself, not campaigning for some political end. “No, it’s not ideological,” he agrees, referring to “Oh To Believe in Another World”. “What it is, is saying, ‘Here are the paradoxes’; that something that started with such optimism descended into such instrumental brutality. And so it sets the question of how does one find emancipation? We understand that it’s not okay for the inequalities in the world to exist, but that some of the huge-scale plans to change that have really not worked.

Illustration by Jonathan Newhouse

“That’s the paradox it sets itself in. More specifically, how did Shostakovich navigate his way through the Soviet Union? How did an artist do it? It’s a mixture between making a space for anarchic stupidity and learning from what you do, rather than telling the world what it has to do.”

Speaking with Kentridge, you soon realise that every answer gives rise to another question, which is perhaps an allegory for artistic inspiration. I ask, for example, whether he is commenting on events in these works.

William Kentridge created the artwork The Dead Report For Duty, for this issue of LUX

“I don’t see it as a commentary,” he says, “because in a commentary you need a sense of what your comment is at the beginning. At the end we discover what it is we have made. For me, the most interesting artworks are the ones that end with a riddle. You know a riddle is the edge of knowing a meaning and you can’t quite put your finger on the right word, exactly what it is, and then you become complicit in trying to construct what it is, to fill the gaps, to leap over the gaps, and that’s the place where we are. One of the phrases that comes up is, ‘There is no good solution’. There are less bad ones, though.”

So am I correct to see a kind of dark, absurdist wit in these works, despite, or perhaps because of their subject matter: apartheid, communism in the Soviet Union and the Cultural Revolution in communist China?

“Well, there’s certainly an absurdism,” he says, and then qualifies it. “In England, the absurd often just means the silly or funny. I mention the absurd as a logic that has gone astray, and then following that bad logic with complete clarity and assiduity. And if you think of what apartheid was in South Africa, it was absurd. We decide who you are by whether a pencil will stick in your hair or not, and that will determine your future. So there’s an absurdity in that, but it gets followed through with all the violence of the state behind it. It would be impossible to describe what happened in South Africa without invoking the category of the absurd, so I find it a very central way of thinking. It’s also about giving an image the benefit of the doubt – doing it and seeing what happens. And that would be like in psychoanalysis, where you use free association on the basis that something may well come out, even if you don’t know what it is in advance.”

I mention, as context, that I feel I can understand his works a little because I studied Soviet history, and worked in post-apartheid South Africa as a foreign correspondent. Do people viewing his works need this kind of knowledge?

“Hmm,” he ponders briefly. “It’s like in one of the films at the RA, where there’s an image of headphone speakers put on a pig’s head, and then the pig’s head is exploded. If you’re from South Africa, then you’ll know that was actually an experiment done by the security police to check boobytrapped headphones – they put them on a pig’s head and blew the head up. If you don’t know that story, it’s nonetheless an image of extreme violence, dichotomies and the vulgarity of putting Walkman headphones on a pig and then blowing it up.

“I think people are very good at creating or either understanding or constructing a context – which may not be that accurate, but nonetheless fulfils us. So I don’t believe that you have to understand all the context. But it helps to understand what apartheid was, to understand there was a cultural revolution in China.”

I wonder what he thinks of the current cultural battles and universalisation of identity in the Global North. Identity was, after all, the basis of apartheid, its justification for an institutionalised racial categorisation that put white people at the top, black people at the bottom, and so-labelled “coloureds” and “Indians” somewhere in the middle – although, effectively, near the bottom. I mention that when I worked as a foreign correspondent in the 1990s, the only times I had been required to state exactly what race I was on a form, were in apartheid South Africa and left-wing councils in the UK.

Do these conversations come into play in his works? His answer is, typically, a deep one that slides into a riddle before it quite gets to its point. “Not directly, but I think they do come into it. I mean, there’s a polemic against an identity politics in the world, both in the way I work with different people and in the way that if you say, like in South Africa, we had all those years of apartheid, of identity politics, black people must live here physically, this is the type of music they can listen to, white people can listen to classical music, black people must listen to jazz.

“Part of the struggle against apartheid is saying, ‘No, a black person can listen to opera, can be an opera singer.’ So there is a polemic in that. There’s a polemic in saying, ‘Why do you do it – art that is connected to politics, without it having a political message?’ It says it clearly: politics is much less clear cut, much more paradoxical, ambiguous. Much less certain.”

We turn briefly to the politics of South Africa, where the institutionalised brutality of the apartheid era briefly gave way to hope when Nelson Mandela became President in 1994, and has now degenerated into corruption and mismanagement. Is he pessimistic?

“I always feel that in South Africa to be an optimist or a pessimist is wrong, because there were two futures unfolding, an optimistic one and a pessimistic one, but the difficult future feels harder to escape. I made a film called In Defence of Optimism, which is about life in the studio: what is the optimism in here, in making something, in not leaving the paper blank, in resisting entropy? And that became a strong action rather than a theme. Downtown in Johannesburg, shockingly, they have seven hours a day without electricity, sometimes two days at a time with no water. So it means that the well-off have a generator, they have a 4 x 4 vehicle that can go over the potholes in the road, but if you’re anyone else your life is really, really difficult and messed up.”

But he is loyal. He is still there. “I am still there. And two of our three children are there. But so many of the collaborators, musicians, actors, are still there – that’s a strong pull. I would feel quite dislocated, I think, if I moved. In a way, I stay in South Africa because I don’t have to. Also, it is depressing when things are falling apart, but it’s a very interesting place to be. It would be interesting to see, when you see the whole series of performances, whether it’s, ‘Oh, my God, I’m just going to go home and slit my throat’, or whether it actually gives energy.”

Is he disappointed in the ANC – once banned under apartheid but which has governed South Africa since 1994, and has, post-Mandela, proved such a poor governor? “Yes, I think we really messed up badly in the years of the Zuma presidency [2009-18]. And it’s difficult to get out of it – our new president hasn’t done much better.”

I say that I remember Cyril Ramaphosa, whose current presidency has been marked by corruption and mismanagement scandals, when he was an ANC negotiator in the optimistic years of the 1990s: he seemed like a perfect future president – wise, thoughtful, considered. “He was, and everyone kept giving him the benefit of the doubt, saying, ‘It just takes time, it just takes time’, but now it’s been many years.”

Read more: Christopher Cowdray on the Dorchester London’s Latest Renovation

Kentridge doesn’t give much away, but you cannot create monumental, moving works like his (and the occasional funny ones) without a big emotional burden. I ask, is drawing therapeutic?

“Drawing is completely therapeutic,” he says. “However bad I’m feeling, after two hours in the studio just quietly drawing, everything seems manageable.”

At that point, the powerful intellectual sitting next to me sounds, briefly, like any vulnerable, creative artist.

Portraiture and exhibition photography by Maryam Eisler

Find out more: kentridge.studio

This article was first published in the Spring/Summer 2023 issue of LUX

Florence Kasumba. Photo by Diane Betties

The multilingual martial-arts expert and star of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Florence Kasumba, speaks to LUX about growing up Ugandan German and championing strong women

LUX: What inspired you to act?
Florence Kasumba: I grew up in Essen, Germany, in an all-white area. The only black people I knew were my mother and siblings. One day, my music teacher took our class to see Starlight Express. I was overwhelmed seeing people who looked like me on a stage and being celebrated by the audience. In the show, artists sing, act, dance and do acrobatics – on roller skates. I’d never seen anything like it. In that moment, I wanted to be a performer.

LUX: How do you navigate acting in three languages?
FK: I grew up in Germany, learnt English from age ten and studied in the Netherlands. I have done a lot of global productions and the common language tends to be English. But speaking three languages is one reason I have an international career.

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LUX: Is your Ugandan German identity important to you?
FK: I was socialised in Germany in a Ugandan household, but I am more familiar with the German way of living. When it comes to identity, I walk through life as a black woman. I am aware of my appearance and have learnt how to navigate in different situations. Some are safe, some not. That is just part of my life.

LUX: How does a director get the best out of you?
FK: I perform 100 per cent. That is my duty. It helps when the director does not scream at me.

LUX: How do you get the best out of you?
FK: For everything that does not come naturally, I ask for help. If I have to speak with an accent, I work with a language coach. If I have to work with weapons, I train with experts. I will always give my best effort, but give me time and training and you will get my absolute best.

Danai Gurira, Lupita Nyong’o and Florence Kasumba in a scene from Black Panther © Matt Kennedy/Disney/Marvel Studios via AP

LUX: What are the joys and pains of you job?
FK: I enjoy roles that need a certain physicality. Ayo in the Marvel films is one of my favourites as I get to train with the Marvel stunt team, which is fun – but sometimes painful. Like most people, I can feel insecure out of my comfort zone – when I need a skill that is not yet developed, or when dialogue has been changed just before I go on set. It used to bother me when people were rude, but now I know how to steer my focus to what is important for the scene. I am grateful I chose this path to become a performer.

LUX: Tell us about your character in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
FK: I play Ayo, one of the Dora Milaje, an elite troop of Wakandan female warriors. Ayo and her team are responsible for the safety of the King and Queen of Wakanda, and the royal family.

LUX: Are martial arts good for body and soul?
FK: I am not an expert on the effects of martial arts on the human body, but from my experience in Shaolin Kung Fu, Tai Chi Chen, Tai Chi Yang and Qigong, my body has become stronger, I focus better and I am mentally stronger. Regular training has improved my coordination, flexibility, endurance and accuracy. I am more balanced and have less tension in my body.

Read more: Carolina Bucci on creating her own brand vision

LUX: What’s your favourite memory from the German TV series Deutschland 86/89?
FK: Working with the creative team was fun. We mainly filmed 86 in South Africa and working with actors who had experienced apartheid was educational. I enjoyed Cape Town. My favourite time was the scene in the safe house, when ANC members plan their next move. We were a lot of actors in one room and had time to chat between takes. This is how you get to know about people’s lives and culture.

LUX: How would you advise young people?
FK: I would say: work hard, stay focused, do not compare yourself to others, know you will make mistakes and learn from them. Surround yourself with people who have the same passion you do. Once you have found them, support each other.

Interview by Isabella Sheherazade Sanai

Black Panther: Wakande Forever is available to stream on Disney+

This article was first published in the Spring/Summer 2023 issue of LUX

Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour at Château de Chantilly outside Paris. Photograph by Gavin Elder

Filmmaker Gavin Elder has created films for the likes David Lynch, Mark Ronson, Duran Duran, ACDC and Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour. Here, he speaks to Paige Nelson about his career highlights, the challenges of shooting in a Roman amphitheatre and capturing the atmosphere of live music on video

1. Did always want to work in the film industry?

I picked up my Dad’s Super 8 camera when I was ten years old. The unique Super 8 sound, and the tactile feel of film running through the camera lit something inside me.

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2. Who have been the most interesting people to work with so far?

Working with David Gilmour has been an absolute high point. I remember the very first day we started filming at Bray Studios, he was rehearsing with the other members of Pink Floyd [Rick Wright and Nick Mason], and someone shouted, ‘Let’s do C Numb!’ They launched into ‘Comfortably Numb’, and the hairs on the back of my neck jumped up.

Fans at an ACDC concert in Buenos Aires. Photograph by Gavin Elder

3. How do you create the atmosphere of a concert in a film?

This varies from artist to artist, but I think the most important element is for the performer to be relaxed enough with the process of filming that they focus on the music and their performance. My role is to then select camera positions and capture the show without being obtrusive. The musical highlights, subtle glances and infectious smiles between band members together with the audience create the magic.

Read more: Chopard’s Caroline Scheufele on versatile jewellery design

4. Is there any person you would drop everything to do a documentary on?

Don’t they say you should never meet your heroes? Working with David Lynch on a project for Dom Pérignon was extraordinary; he had such a great sense of humour and incredible focus while working. I remember the laughter, and a great sense of team work.

In 2011, Elder created a short film capturing behind-the-scenes footage of David Lynch (above)  shooting Dom Pérignon’s new campaign. Photograph by Gavin Elder.

5. Are there any artists who have inspired your works?

I think street art as much as fine art has influenced my approach. I’ve made films with Faile, Shepard Fairey and street artist Ludo. Giles Walker made a phenomenal piece titled The Last Supper which I documented. I travel extensively and different cities around the world contribute to the vitality and energy in my work.

6. What are biggest challenges of any project, and how has the pandemic affected the film industry?

When we filmed Live At Pompeii all the equipment had to be hauled by hand down a specially built road to the edge of the Roman amphitheatre – a logistical challenge, which the local Italians rose to. During the show, a rogue drone flew dangerously low over the audience and a laser team tried to disable the drone’s camera with a focused laser beam. The drone footage has never surfaced so perhaps they were successful.

The pandemic has been devastating [for the film industry]! Numerous projects have been cancelled, although some work has started to trickle back now. There have been some interesting online concerts and new approaches to entertaining fans, but it’s difficult to replicate the live feel, the bass in your chest, the shared experience, the intensity.

Follow Gavin Elder on Instagram: @gavin_elder

Abdullah Ibrahim by Lex van Rossen

Abdullah Ibrahim was discovered by Duke Ellington, fought against apartheid, and played at Nelson Mandela’s inauguration. The South African jazz legend speaks to LUX from his Cape Town home about his hopes and dreams

My favourite view…

The stars in the night sky over the green Kalahari.

The best place to listen to jazz…

Where your chosen jazz musicians are playing.

Where you’ll find the coolest new bands…

In the place you least expect.

The only thing I’ll queue up for is…

A masterclass with a master.

Most overrated tourist spot…

The beach.

Most undiscovered tourist spot…

The unlisted one you discover.

What I love about Cape Town…

The flowers and animals.

My favourite smell…

Musk.

I feel most at one with nature in…

The desert, hills and rivers.

The best local dish…

The traditional dish prepared at home.

My favourite memory is…

The next one.

What I think of the youngest generation…

I was once like them.

If I live to be 200 I would like to see…

If that bird at daybreak still sings the same song.

My proudest achievement is…

Realising and accepting that the process of learning is boundless.

My greatest fear is…

Becoming complacent and lapsing into a comfort zone.

My biggest regret is…

Not doing enough to seek for knowledge.

Find out more: abdullahibrahim.co.za

This article originally appeared in the Autumn/Winter 2020/2021 Issue. 

Ellerman House’s art collection features nearly 1,000 works

Hotels have long housed art collections, and now many are opening their own gallery spaces alongside art-focused programmes to offer guests unique cultural experiences. In his latest column for LUX, Abercrombie & Kent’s Founder Geoffrey Kent handpicks his favourite art hotels across the globe

Ellerman House, Cape Town, South Africa

Art lovers will delight in staying at this landmark hotel on Cape Town’s coast. Within the elegant Edwardian mansion of Ellerman House, close to 1,000 works of art reflect the changes in South Africa’s social and geographical landscape since the 1930s. Artists in the collection include John Meyer, Erik Laubscher, Jan Volschenk, Cathcart William Methven, and Pieter Wenning to name but a few. Guests can take a self-guided art tour with an electronic tablet providing insight into each piece. If you prefer, the in-house guide is on hand to take you around the extensive collection and beyond – guests can request guided excursions to the city’s local galleries, enjoying behind-the-scenes access and unmatched insight.

ellerman.co.za

Follow LUX on Instagram: luxthemagazine

The bathroom of the Royal Suite at The Silo, Cape Town

The Silo, Cape Town, South Africa

A disused grain silo may seem an unlikely candidate for a museum and an art hotel. Yet, this imposing building on Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront has been transformed in recent years into a bastion for the African arts. The lower portion of the building is now my friend Jochen Zeitz’s eponymous Museum of Contemporary Art Africa. It’s home to the continent’s most extensive collection of contemporary African art. I’m proud to be one of its founding members and to support its primary aim of encouraging intercultural understanding. It’s a fantastic collection in an extraordinary building. Above, the museum is the beautiful Silo hotel in which I stayed for a few days before departing for the South Pole on one of my Inspiring Expeditions. The six storeys of luxury accommodation are brimming with curated artwork. The Silo’s owner, Liz Biden of The Royal Portfolio, has used the space to display her collection of African pieces. There are works by upcoming artists as well as more established names, such as Nandipha Mntambo, Cyrus Kabiru, and Mohau Modisakeng. The hotel even features its boutique gallery The Vault.

theroyalportfolio.com/the-silo

Hotel B is Lima’s first and only art hotel

Hotel B, Lima, Peru

For those of us who travel often, firsts are increasingly hard to come by, yet Hotel B is that rarest of things. Lima’s first – and only – art hotel is aptly situated in the city’s most bohemian district amid galleries and fashion boutiques. The building itself is brimming with character, converted as it is from a 1920s colonial mansion. Stay in this restored ‘grand dame’ to admire its private collection of more than 200 artworks, proudly displayed across the landings. Hotel B’s close relationship with nearby Lucia de la Puente Gallery allows guests to request private viewings easily; the gallery offers a fantastic insight into the world of contemporary Peruvian art.

hotelb.pe

Read more: In conversation with Iranian artist and filmmaker Shirin Neshat

‘Crouching Spider’ sculpture by Louise Bourgeois at Villa La Coste in Provence

Villa la Coste, Provence, France

The pastoral landscape of Provence is impossible to upstage, so the owners of Villa La Coste have sought instead to adorn it with dazzling flourishes of creativity. Throughout the biodynamic vineyard of Château La Coste and art hotel, sculptures are tucked amid verdant woodland, hills, and lawns – including works by acclaimed artists Ai Weiwei and Tracey Emin. You can enjoy a two-hour private art and architecture walk with the curator, learning all about the eclectic collection while taking in the beautiful Provençal countryside. Also, the hotel is home to its very own arts centre and hosts temporary exhibitions throughout the year. Stay here, and you’ll never be short of art to admire (nor home-grown wine to sip as you do).

villalacoste.com

MONA Tasmania offers visitors the chance to stay on the museum grounds in a contemporary pavilion

MONA, Tasmania, Australia

Set on the banks of the River Derwent, the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) is Australia’s largest privately owned gallery and museum. It was masterminded by gambler and mathematician David Walsh and exhibits his diverse taste in art – from Ancient Egyptian relics to quirky dioramas. Whilst the museum isn’t strictly a hotel, visitors have the opportunity to stay in one of eight contemporary pavilions, each with its own unique character. As well as access to an enclosed lap pool, sauna, and gym, you’ll have a museum chock-full of eclectic and eccentric artwork right on your doorstep. Enjoy unfettered access to MONA’s permanent collection, and utilise its ‘O’ device during self-guided wanders to learn more about the art.

mona.net.au

Find out more: abercrombiekent.co.uk

The number of ultra-high-net-worth individuals in the Philippines is forecast to grow at the the second fastest rate of any country, says Knight Frank’s Wealth Report 2019. Pictured here: Manila

Lord Andrew Hay. Image by John Wright

Lord Andrew Hay is Global Head of Residential at Knight Frank, the international real estate consultancy, and has built up property portfolios for some of the wealthiest people in the world. In this regular column, he is handed a theoretical sum of money by LUX and asked how he would invest it. This month, we asked Lord Hay where he would invest if he had $200m to spend on real estate in emerging markets

“Where would you invest if you had $200m to spend on real estate in emerging markets?” It seemed appropriate that I was asked this question by LUX having just returned from a business trip to Manila. With the Philippines front of mind – this is where I would start.

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As reported in The Wealth Report 2019, the number of ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) in the Philippines is forecast to grow by 38% in the five years to 2023, the second fastest of any country. In Manila, the Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) facilities sector is rapidly growing – currently employing 1.5m Filipinos, 1.5% of the population, and accounting for 7.5% of the economy – with the government aiming to expand this to 10-11% in 2020. This growth has boosted office rents within the metro Manila region as well as the residential market as investors snap up multiple units to lease out to BPO employees working nearby.

I would then move my attention to India. Recently the Government of India has put in place a growing number of incentives to enter India’s warehousing sector and this is an area, which seems ripe for investment. The new ‘Make in India’ programme was created to encourage manufacturing; the development of multimodal transport networks and the setting up industrial corridors such as The Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) are also supporting growth in the market.

India’s warehousing sector is ripe for investment, according to Knight Frank’s Andrew Hay. Pictured here: Mumbai

My focus would then turn to an investment in South Africa and to something that appeals to me on a more personal level – a game lodge and reservation. As interest in climate change, sustainable tourism and the concept of “natural capital” grows around the world, there is an increasing focus on Africa. Much of this is centred on South Africa and projects that can add significant value to denuded agricultural land, especially if the “Big 5” are in residence.

Read more: Why we love the Richard Mille x Roberto Mancini RM 11-04 timepiece

Back to Asia, I would look to South Korea. The government recently introduced a pre-sale price cap policy in an effort to cool its housing market. However, this currently only applies to four areas in Seoul. House prices in certain prime areas of the city have been recording price growth in excess of 15% year-on-year over the last 12-18 months, as developers rushed to redevelop older buildings. Going forward, this move is expected to rapidly cool speculation in the market and reign in accelerating prices but there is still an opportunity to invest here.

There are no restrictions on foreign nationals acquiring property in Romania, making entry into the market easier for investors, says Andrew Hay

I would then consider closer to home in Europe – the Romanian prime residential market. It recorded promising results in the first half of 2019 and, according to Knight Frank, 60% of developers active in the local market expect price increases of up to 10% per square metre in the next year. There are no restrictions on foreign nationals acquiring property in Romania either, making entry into the market easier for investors than many other markets.

Perhaps not the most glamorous of locations or assets but nonetheless a diverse and interesting portfolio and this is where I would invest $200m if considering investment across some of the world’s emerging markets.

Find out more: knightfrank.co.uk

Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, Isiolo, Kenya. Image by David Clode

Philanthropists have long played a huge role in wildlife conservation, but now a more holistic approach is needed in a world where humans and nature increasingly live cheek by jowl

Andrew Shirley

Sometimes, to see the bigger picture, you have to turn things inside out. For decades, wildlife conservation, particularly in Africa, has focused on what lies within the boundaries of national parks, reserves and other protected areas, many of which owe their existence to the fortunes of benefactors and donors enthused with a passion for the environment.

But despite their efforts and the hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars spent, the continent’s wildlife is still in a state of precipitous decline. Now, there is growing recognition that part of the solution is to be found on the other side of the hard and not-so-hard boundaries separating man from nature.

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To many, the conservation battleground in Africa is a war – literally, conducted by both sides with military-grade equipment and planning – against the illegal trade in ivory and rhino horn. And wildlife isn’t the only victim. Paul Milton, founder of the Milton Group, an advisory firm to a number of ultra-high-net- worth families with a combined interest in over 1.5 million acres of conservation lands in Sub-Saharan Africa, has seen evidence of this first-hand. The story from just one community in Mozambique is harrowing. Scores of children orphaned; fathers lost while poaching or through long-term incarceration; mothers forced into prostitution to survive.

Huge sums are spent to thwart poaching, but too little on addressing the reasons that drive people to do it. Having interviewed many poachers, he says, they want just two things: food security and work. Asking someone who already spends millions on conservation to fund employment creation isn’t an easy sell, yet long term, generating local economic value offers a more sustainable means to reduce poaching.

Conservation and the hospitality industry that springs up alongside it does create jobs, but it’s not enough. Park boundaries that ten years ago were relatively devoid of habitation are now marked by informal settlements of hundreds of thousands of people – the fences of some of the world’s most iconic wild spaces are used as washing lines.

Creating buffer zones around parks is one solution, but only increases the sense of dislocation between local people and wildlife. Even the word ‘conservation’ is controversial due to its colonial undertones: high-minded thinking from afar, divorced from the daily realities of existence.

Part of the problem is that very little attention has been paid to how population growth and infrastructure development, such as new transport corridors, increasingly affect the disparate conservation zones scattered across Africa. The base data exists – the world has been comprehensively mapped from space – but nobody has thought to join the dots in Africa. A new initiative between mapping and geographic information system providers ESRI, Nasa and The Peace Parks Foundation, coordinated by Milton Group and the UN, looking at a ten-million-hectare swathe of Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, should act as a framework for a more unified approach to conservation.

The other elephant in the room is that conservation in its current form isn’t financially sustainable over the long term. Since the financial crisis, the NGO model appears to have hit a glass ceiling and even the most deep-pocketed philanthropists don’t wish to leave money pits for future generations.

Tourism was long regarded as the answer, but alone, it is no silver bullet. At the top end of the market, the cost of providing luxuries to attract big-spending visitors to remote areas makes it difficult to generate huge profits. Further down the chain, the volume of guests on more affordable safaris can damage the flora and fauna supposedly being protected.

Read more: Introducing the new age of ink art

Well-resourced individuals and families, however, are looking at new hybrid hospitality models involving impact investment, public/private partnerships and hospitality programmes for their exclusive use. This model is particularly suited to private reserves, however most of Africa’s protected spaces are under a wider umbrella of stewardship. More innovative models are required, that may not be linked to the protection of a species, but to the wider benefits to society, such as carbon sequestration that can mitigate the speed of climate change. The payment for this ‘natural capital’ could come from companies looking to offset their own carbon emissions.

In my role as editor of The Wealth Report I’ve been lucky enough to see first-hand the amazing work being done by philanthropists in Africa, whether conserving existing wild areas or rewilding landscapes given over to agriculture. The success stories are awe-inspiring. But a new narrative is required that accommodates the needs of people as well as wildlife, one that is not imposed on the continent, but works in harmony with it.

For UHNWIs looking to get involved in conservation, there is a unique opportunity now to shape that narrative. Some advice: let your passion drive you, but don’t let it overwhelm your decision making. Work out where your efforts will have most impact; an isolated block of land may be ideal for a private reserve, but somewhere providing a corridor between existing conservation areas may offer longer-term benefits. Visit existing projects, assemble a team of experts, talk to potential partners and don’t look at wildlife in isolation, the local community is an equally important part of the equation. Finally, have a clear vision of how your project will be financed in future to protect your legacy.

Many wealthy individuals have created their fortunes by turning things inside out to create new perspectives. They still have a huge role to play in safeguarding the world’s wildlife.

The Wealth Report, a guide to prime property and wealth trends, is published by Knight Frank. knightfrank.com/wealthreport

This article was originally published in the Autumn 19 Issue.

Installation shot from the Koto Bolofo x Connolly Goodwood style exhibition

Ahead of this weekend’s Goodwood Revival, an exhibition of photographs by South African photographer Koto Bolofo celebrating the glamour of the famed racetrack opens  alongside the launch of a new motorsport inspired capsule collection by British fashion brand Connolly

We are brought back to the track as it once was in Koto Bolofo’s photos of the Goodwood Revival. The South African photographer documented the race where vehicles from the ’40s, ’50s and ‘60s are revived, reliving the excitement, glamour and romance of Britain’s leading racing circuit. The collection of silver gelatin prints capture the curved, voluptuous car bodies, the drivers and mechanics bent over engines and meeting in the cockpit, encapsulating the beauty, style and danger of motor racing in the most intimate manner.

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Here and above: images by Koto Bolofo

Bolofo is known for his romantic approach to photography. Part of his process is to visit and become familiar with the locations and people that he will be shooting, claiming that he wants himself and the location to ‘grow as friends’. His work at Goodwood is no different, having previously worked at the track on a shoot for Italian Vogue in July 2004. His monochromatic, low and close shots invite us into the private world of drivers and their teams.

Read more: Mustafah Abdulaziz wins 2019 LOBA photography award

Here and above: images by Koto Bolofo

Alongside the exhibition, British fashion brand Connolly will launch a new collection this Autumn celebrating the heritage of motorsports. The timeless fabrics and tailoring of Goodwood’s drivers, mechanics and spectators are the inspiration for the capsule collection, which incorporates leather goods and cashmere knits.

Rosie Ellison-Balaam

The ‘Connolly x Koto Bolofo’ exhibition runs until 2 October 2019 at Connolly Townhouse, 4 Clifford St, Mayfair, London, W1S 2LG. The ‘Connolly x Goodwood’ capsule collection is launched on 13 September 2019.

For more information visit: connollyengland.com/koto-bolofo/

The safari deck at Selati Camp with views across the bush

Why should I go now?

Whilst the frost is settling over Europe, it’s summer in South Africa and the sun is scorching.

The Sabi Sand Wildtuin is an unfenced private game reserve stretching a massive 60,000 hectares of pure, uninterrupted wilderness. It’s situated adjacent to the Kruger National Park and is regarded as one of the top safari destinations in the country; home to the Big Five (i.e. lion, leopard, rhino, buffalo and elephant) and over 200 other animals.

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Aside from the game drives, “Tshamakahle”, “stay well” in Shangaan (the local language of Sabi Sands) is the only item on the To Do list.

The Ivory Presidential suite with a private plunge pool

What’s the lowdown?

The Selati Camp is one of four luxury all-suite lodges at Sabi Sabi. Intimate with a classic, vintage aesthetic (think thatched roofs and original antiques), the vibe is elegant yet eclectic. The service style is old school, though not too formal, and very personable. Nothing feels too much to ask.

The safari experience generally follows the same routine: at 5.30am the ranger comes knocking on your door for the morning drive, which might sound horrifying but this is the best time to spot the animals before they all slink away into the shade. To soften the blow, there are blankets and hot water bottles in the trucks, and after an hour or two of driving, there’s often a pitstop for breakfast in the bush.

Read more: We speak to designer Mandkhai Jargalsaikhan about Mongolian cashmere

After that, the rest of the day is left open for snoozing, sunbathing, book reading, drawing or whatever else takes your fancy. The evening safari starts at 4pm, returning in time for dinner.

An outdoor bathtub beside one of the luxury suites

Getting horizontal

We loved the earthy colour palette, natural textures and the grandeur of the four poster bed draped with a curtain.

There are no fences around the lodges and our shower and bath were alfresco, which all added to the feeling of being at one with nature.

Flipside

The Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve is perfect to get to by private plane from Nelspruit (less than 15 minutes in the air), but if you arrive after dark they won’t let you land on the Sabi Sabi airstrip because it’s too hard to keep the animals off the run way.

Rates: From £650 (approx. €750 /$850 ) per person per night, all inclusive.

To book your stay visit: sabisabi.com/lodges/selaticamp

Kitty Harris

As the globe’s art lovers gather at Frieze London, Anna Wallace-Thompson interviews one of the world’s greatest living artists exclusively for LUX.  The expansive career of William Kentridge has seen him design opera sets, stage multidisciplinary performances and create hard-hitting and poignant drawings and animations. His work explores the legacy of apartheid, as well as the human condition, and the ever-repeating cycles of history and memory.

When William Kentridge was three years old, he wanted to be an elephant. At 15, he declared his intention to become a conductor, but was somewhat crestfallen to discover one needed to know how to read music in order to do this. In his twenties, he decided to attend theatre school, and it was there, he says, that he found the confidence to realise he would never become an actor. At 30, a friend broke the news to him: stop calling yourself a technician, or a set designer. You’re an artist! No more talking about ‘falling back’ on a sensible career – time to sink or swim. This should have come as no surprise, for Kentridge had always been drawing and creating – “to make sense of the world”. At 34, he had a breakthrough. His 1989 animated film Johannesburg, 2nd Greatest City After Paris introduced an intrigued audience to the first of what would become nine films chronicling the rise and fall of the characters Soho Eckstein, his wife, and her lover Felix Teitelbaum – all brought to life, in charcoal, through a unique draw-and-erase stop-motion animation technique.

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Carnets d’Égypte (2010), a multimedia ‘excavation’ of ancient Egypt

In fact, the world of William Kentridge is defined by those dark, deft lines of charcoal, which, as he explains to me, “make us aware of the work we do in recognising what we are looking at”. They capture, in a few strokes, the nuances of bodies and personalities, joy and heartache. When animated, they appear and disappear over and over to create living, breathing figures; the erased traces of lines remaining in the background, marking the passing of time and the endurance of memory. Now, at 63, Kentridge is often referred to as South Africa’s Picasso, and his fiercely intelligent oeuvre encompasses those signature charcoal drawings and animations as well as sculpture and theatre. He also creates vast, multidisciplinary performances using shadow puppetry, music, dance and sculpture – so that theatre school wasn’t wasted after all. His work has appeared in museum shows around the world, most recently Thick Time at London’s Whitechapel Gallery (2016–17), and O Sentimental Machine (2018) at Frankfurt’s Liebieghaus. He also debuted a special performance at London’s Tate Modern in July, titled The Head & the Load. The latter is, he admits, is “filling all my thoughts at the moment. It is the most ambitious work I’ve done… even though it is not necessarily the largest.” For, of course, in addition to theatre, Kentridge also has decades of opera design under his belt – and that means whole choirs on stage.

Read more: Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar’s dialogue across time and space

Kentridge is also a striking man. He is not particularly tall, yet appears tall. His sharp features, marked by dark bushy eyebrows are at once stern yet kind, lending him a sort of old world grace and gravitas (it is telling that Linda Givon, founder of his long-time gallery, Goodman, has referred to him as “a genius and a gentleman”). His parents, Sydney and the late Felicia Kentridge, were anti-apartheid lawyers. During his career, the now 95-year-old Sydney defended Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu as well as the family of activist Steve Biko in the infamous Biko Inquest – investigating the death of the Black Consciousness Movement founder at the hands of police. Kentridge has spoken of the pervasive sense of “indignation and rage at the dinner table” during his childhood, as well as a now-famous story during which the young Kentridge, thinking it was full of sweets, accidentally stumbled upon a box full of police photographs of brutalised bodies being used as evidence. Those images, he recalls, percolated in his subconscious and found their way into his work decades later, and it was only then that he himself recalled the incident, and told his father.

‘O Sentimental Machine’ (2015) at Liebieghaus in Frankfurt

With this backdrop of apartheid, it is natural that there is violence in Kentridge’s art, but there is immense, overpowering beauty too. Much of his work is political – a ruthless yet contemplative exploration of the human condition and the ramifications and consequences of apartheid in South Africa in particular, but also events in general. History, for Kentridge, is a collage – a series of intermingling events each affecting the other, and it is his insight into ‘the other side’, the understanding that “everyone’s triumph is someone else’s lament” that gives it such an edge. “I imagine working with Kentridge is what it must have been like working with Charles Dickens or Shakespeare,” the Whitechapel’s Iwona Blazwick tells me. “He is a phenomenon. Of all the artists we’ve worked with, he’s the greatest polymath, and so open and excited to work with other people.”

Scenes from ‘The Head & the Load’ (2018) performance at London’s Tate Modern

This is the reason why, to define Kentridge’s work as exclusively South African would be misleading in many ways. Its impact and appeal lies in its ability to transcend cultural boundaries. Speaking in the documentary, Certain Doubts of William Kentridge, he has explained, “The work is political in that it takes the political part of the world as one of its subject matters, in the same way one could look at love or deception or the structure of personalities, as a subject to endlessly investigate and play with.” For him, it is the ambiguity of any ‘message’ in his work that allows him such freedom – and part of why he loves, and often uses, Dadaist elements, as reflective of a process of not making sense in order to make sense. In many ways, this is the essence of Kentridge, as is his interest in what he has dubbed ‘the less good idea’. He often quotes the adage “if the good doctor can’t cure you, find a less good doctor” – if one idea isn’t working, find the less good one, for that is where the interesting stuff truly happens.

When I meet him, he is in London to unveil a slightly different artistic project, namely, this year’s Vendemmia d’Artista, an annual artist commission by Italian super-winery Ornellaia. The collaboration feels natural, for Kentridge has something of a special relationship with Italy – evidenced most recently by the vast, 550-metre-long processional fresco, Triumphs and Laments, ‘reverse stencilled’ along the walls on the banks of the Tiber (high-pressure water was used to remove layers of dirt from the wall’s surface and create the images).

Kentridge’s Salmanazar creation for Ornellaia’s Vendemmia d’Artista

For Ornellaia’s 2015 Il Carisma, now in its 30th vintage, he has created special wine labels, drawing in charcoal on the pages of old Italian cash books sourced by him from flea markets in Tuscany. On them, he depicts grape pickers and wine secateurs, a shadow procession, as it were, of the people and tools involved in making wine, celebrating “a great harvest of hard labour”. And the secateurs? “I’m interested in things with hinges,” Kentridge explains. “It gives objects an anthropomorphism, and creates things that can walk.” Two of these figures will be realised as three-metre-high, painted steel sculptures and placed in the Ornellaia vineyard itself.

Read more: Entrepreneur John Caudwell on luxury property & philanthropy

The sale of these special bottles by Sotheby’s raised £123,000 for the Victoria & Albert Museum. The star piece, which went under the hammer for £50,000, is a Salmanazar with a mirrored casing. When placed upon a special drawing, it reflects a series of figures, bringing to life Kentridge’s vineyard procession. “The thing about mirror reflections is that you get an image without end,” Kentridge explains. “There is no edge to the form: it has a top and a bottom, but you can keep circling around. In this case it’s a static drawing of wine pickers, growers and makers, and at the Tate it will be humans carrying shadows along a long curve as they circle around a stage.”

Kentridge is referring to his most recent project, an expansive theatrical production marking the centenary of the First World War – and more specifically, the role of the millions of African porters and carriers who served (for the most part unacknowledged and forgotten in the historical record) in that war. The Head & the Load takes its name from a Ghanaian proverb (‘The head and the load are the troubles of the neck’) and draws on Kentridge’s vast experience of operatic production, set design, shadow puppetry, mechanised sculpture, dance and film projection. Debuting over the summer at Tate Modern, it saw Kentridge team up with his longtime composer collaborator Philip Miller as well as choreographer and dancer Gregory Maqoma to create a theatrical, musical procession.

“I am interested in processions for a couple of different reasons,” Kentridge muses. “One is that they have to do with human foot power – people moving themselves along. Obviously, this has echoes of migration, of refugees walking and the idea of human power moving from one part of the world to another.” The other aspect, he explains, is to do with lateral movement, referencing the analogy of Plato’s cave, in a processional work the figures move sideways to the viewer, rather than backwards and forwards (towards and away from). When they pass by us,we become passive, witnesses to the passage of time. “The world is filled with people, with loads on their backs and their heads, walking across the world,” he explains. “What is our relationship to that passage of passing?”

Stills from ‘Johannesburg, 2nd Greatest City After Paris’

Plato is also key, as shadows have become one of Kentridge’s signature motifs, the use of monochrome (greatly influenced by what he sees as a rather bleak landscape around Johannesburg) evident in his animation works as well as in the use of large-scale shadow puppets and mechanical sculptures. “Colour had so many problems for me, associated with how one used it, that it stopped the question of what one was using it for,” Kentridge has said. “Charcoal, black and white, it’s much closer to writing… instead of writing with a pen, one’s writing in a shorthand with images and the images can always be at the service of something other than themselves – an idea, a theme, a question that’s being asked.”

Read more: Caroline Scheufele on Chopard’s gold standard

The use of shadow processions in his theatrical work, then, is an evolution of his schematic moving figures, as seen in films such as Ubu Tells the Truth, in which he combines moving puppets with charcoal animation. “There is something very simple about shadows, in that you take a basic shape, and when it’s cast as a shadow, one still recognises it,” says Kentridge.
“For example, without having to make a real model of a boat, you can cut out the silhouette of one, and everybody will recognise your boat – even though it’s just a few sticks and some cardboard. So in that sense, it is a sort of poor art form, yet it has a real richness of both allusion and illusion when you watch it.” There is a lot to be said for the democratising abilities of the ‘poor art form’ of silhouettes and puppets – indeed, in the 18th and 19th centuries, cut-paper silhouette portraits became a cheap and affordable alternative to photography or painting. “I hadn’t thought of them in that form specifically, but there is something very simple about them,” Kentridge responds. “A silhouette has a kind of life and a presence. We’re so good at recognising and putting meaning to a shape, so even if we don’t know how to draw something, we can recognise it as it appears in front of us. A lot of the pieces I create, when I look at them on the ground, I can’t quite tell what the image in front of me is, but as soon as it’s held up, and its shadow is cast, it reveals itself completely. I’ll be surprised, even though I made it – you can’t always predict what the shadow will be.”

When it comes to the theme of The Head & the Load, as with much of Kentridge’s work, it deals with historical events, human flow and facts that might otherwise slip through the fingers of history. During the First World War, there were over a million African casualties – of these about 30,000 were soldiers, but a staggering 300,000 were carriers, another 700,000 civilians. “I was astonished at my own ignorance at the start of the project, and the way in which these fatalities devastated different sections of Africa,” he says. “I also had no idea of the 300,000 Chinese in the Western Front, or the hundreds of thousands of Indian sepoys that were in Africa and in France.”

Kentridge’s fresco ‘Triumphs and Laments’ (2016) along the walls of the Tiber in Rome

It seems unfathomable that something like this could be so unknown. “I think this is because, all the air, as it were, has been taken by [the Eurocentric experience of] All Quiet on the Western Front and Wilfred Owen – that’s what we learned in school,” says Kentridge.
“That’s what one found so moving, and had such a strong connection to.” As a nod to this, The Head & the Load does feature a fragment of Owen’s poetry – translated, in true Kentridge Dadaist fashion, into forgotten French as well as a dog barking (“well, it might have metamorphosed now into a crow rather than a dog,” he twinkles) – Kentridge’s way of saying it’s time to remember other things as well, to be aware of someone else’s lament. The work stands as emblematic of the fraught relationship Africa has had with Europe since colonisation of the continent began, what Kentridge characterises as, “Europe not understanding Africa, not hearing Africa, and Africa having all of these expectations and hopes of Europe.” He pauses and smiles sadly. “As somebody said to me: ‘Not one of our dreams came true. Freedom! Oh, we missed the boat again.’ So yes, it’s incomprehensible.”

View William Kentridge’s portfolio: mariangoodman.com/artists/william-kentridge

Gabon is one of the few countries on this planet that is still relatively untouched by tourism, says Geoffrey Kent, it’s also where you can find mountain gorillas

In his latest column, Abercrombie & Kent Founder Geoffrey Kent considers the difficulties of discovering new destinations and crossing frontiers – from space travel to Gabon’s national reserves

In the noughties, I decided that having explored every continent in the world, I would set myself a new challenge: to add space travel to the range of tours offered by my company. Space is the ultimate unexplored destination.

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In South Africa, at a place called Thunder City – at the time, the site in Cape Town for ex-military jet flights – I boarded an English Electric Lightning plane, captained by a pilot named David Stock. We took off and went from zero to 40,000ft in one minute. We levelled out at 65,000ft and accelerated to full speed (Mach 2.2) whilst looking at the purple curvature of the earth. After I landed back on earth having taken on 5.5 GS, with my feet firmly back on the ground, I called the head scientist and engineer on my A&K Space team and asked about the chances of accidents occurring during space travel. He replied: “There’s a 100 percent chance we will have an accident”. I quickly took stock and decided to cancel the whole thing. It was too risky.

Suri tribesmen waiting for a stick fight (donga) to commence in the village of Kibbish in the North Western Omo valley, Ethiopia. Image by Trevor Cole.

It was one of my most audacious exploits, but a good entrepreneur knows to pull the plug when all the odds are against you. I may be a risk-taker in my personal life but when it comes to travel and my clients, safety is paramount. When some holidays have been dismissed by A&K staff as unfeasible, I have undertaken them myself to ensure they can be offered safely to travellers. This has involved travelling from the source of the Upper Amazon in Peru to where it enters the Atlantic Ocean – a hairy experience with a swift current and moving sandbanks – and cruising to the North Pole.

The colourful skyline of Tbilisi and Narikala Castle, Tbilisi, Georgia

It’s true that the world is well-travelled, but there are still unexplored spots. The limitation is that in these places there is no hospitality infrastructure, and few have a desire to really rough it like explorers of old. I launched my eponymous Inspiring Expeditions with Geoffrey Kent based on the question: why not take people to spots of immense beauty and interest, but where others rarely venture? I lead every expedition and if required, we bring in everything required: beds, Michelin-starred chefs, specialist guides, and even espresso machines.

Read more: Co-founder & CEO of Spring Francesco Costa on creative co-working

I’ll be at the South Pole with my guests this December. Next year on various voyages, we’ll travel by private jet to lesser-visited places like Georgia – that great cultural crossroads; Kamchatka, Russia’s last wilderness; the Omo Valley and the Danakil Depression in Ethiopia; and West Papua in Indonesia.

Ethiopia’s Danakil Depression has one of the most extreme climates found on Earth

These Inspiring Expeditions are all about where I haven’t been. I’m mildly obsessed with an app called Been, in which I list all the countries to which I have travelled – around 140, which equates to 70 per cent. In a decade, I want that figure to be at 100 per cent.

One country to which I’d never been before but had the privilege to travel to recently is Gabon. An impressive 11 per cent of this unexplored part of Africa is designated as national reserves and, in this parkland, mountain gorillas can be found. From a luxury executive Puma Helicopter, I cruised the coast and flew over forests, the sand cliffs and Kongou and Djidji Falls. I fell in love with Loango National Park where I spotted elephant, hippos and buffaloes. One group of elephant were swimming off the beach with their trunks raised out of the water like snorkels. Tourism is still a fledgling industry in Gabon, but I predict it will take off in a big way and very soon, and I hope A&K can be at the forefront of that.

Find out more about Abercrombie & Kent’s ‘Inspiring Expeditions with Geoffrey Kent’: abercrombiekent.com/small-group-journeys/inspiring-expeditions-by-geoffrey-kent

andBeyond game drive in the Serengeti

Joss Kent is a born adventurer. Son of LUX columnist and Abercrombie & Kent CEO Geoffrey Kent, Joss left behind the family legacy to run luxury travel company, andBeyond.

With safari camps all over Africa, and hotels and lodges in select locations across Asia and South America, andBeyond is renowned for its creative approach, commitment to sustainability and spontaneous guest surprises (think champagne breakfast served at sunrise under an ancient baobab tree in the African bush).

Digital Editor Millie Walton speaks to CEO Joss Kent about the excitement and challenges of creating luxury escapes in some of the wildest places on earth

Joss Kent

LUX: What makes andBeyond different from other luxury travel companies?
Joss Kent: What sets us apart is our 27 years of experience and the passionate people who make up the andBeyond team. I am fortunate enough to run a company that is full of talented people who care deeply about what they do. They are, I think, principally driven by the belief that they can make a difference in the world we live in. It is andBeyond’s sole purpose to strive to leave our world better than we found it through our impact model of care of land, wildlife, and people. Alongside this, we also offer extraordinary guest experiences in Africa, Asia and South America.

LUX: andBeyond works with architects to create unique safari camps that differ from the traditional camp image, such as the andBeyond Sandibe Okavango Delta Lodge. What’s the andBeyond design brief? Is there one?
Joss Kent: With a more aware breed of traveller looking towards responsible luxury travel, lodge design is rapidly evolving. As a result, we are focusing our energy and time on trying to make sure that we build sustainably but, at the same time, don’t lose the creative edge that differentiates our guests’ experience. Our large number of lodge refurbishments and new builds showcases the wide range of design that the company’s portfolio encompasses. At the same time, we make sure that sustainability is an entrenched part of the design process. We believe that less is often more and emphasise the field experience that our rangers, guides and hosts offer over opulent lodge design. I believe that the game lodge of the future has a light footprint and uses 100% renewable energy. It uses no plastic, has a zero-carbon offset, a sensitive ecological footprint and a sensitive design, with a strong sense of place.

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LUX: Lots of people assume that luxury and sustainability don’t mix, but andBeyond is proving otherwise. What are some of the sustainability challenges that you are currently facing?
Joss Kent: Because some of the areas where we operate are in less developed countries, certain services are not readily available. For example, in South Africa recycling is easy to do. We have helped to set up community businesses near our lodges that collect our recyclable waste, sort it and sell it on to bigger recycling companies. In countries such as Botswana, Tanzania, Kenya or Namibia, which are less developed or where our lodges are a lot more remote, this is not as easy to do. In these cases, where we cannot recycle, we try to reduce our waste as much as possible.

We encounter similar problems when trying to source more sustainable goods and materials, for example, glass bottles. In some cases there are not available locally and we would be forced to import them. We then need to follow best practice in environmental offsetting, making use of the best compromise available and using other means to offset the impact that we cannot avoid.

andBeyond Bateleur Camp in Kenya’s iconic Masai Mara National Reserve

LUX: What do you understand the term ‘transformational travel’ to mean, and have you seen a shift in terms of your guests’ demands or expectations in recent years?
Joss Kent: Travel has evolved from the adage of taking only photos and leaving only footprints. The world’s wild places need us to do better than that. Now it’s about taking memories and leaving a legacy. These days, we find that guests want to be far more actively involved. Whilst spotting the Big Five on safari is inevitably a key goal and reason for staying at an andBeyond lodge, our guests also want to engage with the local communities and actively participate in conservation initiatives where possible – to have a sense of purpose when travelling.

In addition, more and more often travellers are time-poor and, consequently, want to have immersive and authentic experiences in a short space of time. In response to this demand, we have created a set of Small Group Journeys that are designed to cater for specific interests. Examples include the East Africa Photographic Expeditions, the Snow Leopard Expedition in the far north of India and our Mobile Camping Expeditions in Botswana.

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We’re also seeing that our guests want to invest in themselves and their families by meeting different cultures and learning from them. We have guests who want to improve their overall health – journeys that include meditation and yoga-focused retreats, such as the ones we offer in India, are becoming increasingly popular. The latest addition to our lodge portfolio, andBeyond Vira Vira in Chile, has a farm-to-table food focus and everything from the kitchen is organic, local and in-season. We’re increasingly incorporating wellness into our African safari experience – andBeyond Bateleur Camp just reopened in Kenya’s Masai Mara with a dedicated spa and fitness centre that overlooks an unbroken Mara vista, while andBeyond Phinda Rock Lodge reopened last year with a new rooftop deck for sunrise yoga and meditation.

LUX: andBeyond is known for offering some of the best wildlife experiences in Africa, but of course, you can’t guarantee that you’ll spot any animals. How do you still ensure that your guests have a fulfilling and exciting experience?
Joss Kent: Whilst offering exceptional wildlife viewing is a significant part of what we do, we have seen an increased demand for participative experiences whereby guests are looking for more than just spotting the Big Five. At andBeyond we pride ourselves on delving deeper into offering experiences that engage with the communities too.

We have been breaking down the barriers and including guests in the activities that take place behind the scenes in terms of conservation and community. For example, we offer guests staying at our reserves in South Africa the opportunity to get involved in elephant collaring and rhino notching, both activities that are necessary in monitoring wildlife populations when faced with the growing threat of poaching and decreasing habitat.

At andBeyond Mnemba Island and andBeyond Vamizi Island, where turtle nests are identified and carefully protected, guests travelling at the right time of year can safely escort hatchlings to the sea. We have also just launched two new Small Group Journeys: the Oceans Without Borders Small Group Journey and the Phinda Impact Journey. The former takes place on andBeyond Vamizi Island and is hosted by Dr Tessa Hempson, one of the leading Marine Biologists in East Africa. Here, guests will delve into the fascinating field of marine conservation and gain first-hand knowledge of significant environmental issues affecting the world’s oceans. The latter takes place at andBeyond Phinda Private Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Whilst traditional game drives are integral to this safari experience, it also incorporates elements of our ranger training curriculum, as well as selected conservation activities.

An andBeyond boat safari in Botswana

Another differing experience is the insightful tours that we offer along with our community development partner, Africa Foundation. Our ethos of Care of the Land, Care of the Wildlife, Care of the People guides everything that we do and, through our work with Africa Foundation, we have been able to bring meaningful change to the communities around our lodges through education, providing clean water, healthcare, and small business development projects chosen by the communities. Whilst we have been arranging community visits and animal conservation activities with guests on more of a bespoke basis, we have also created philanthropic itineraries including Travel with Purpose in South Africa and Travel with Purpose in Kenya with the view to showcasing more than only seeing the Big Five when in Africa. Guests can choose to follow these itineraries as they stand or we can customise an itinerary to fit a guest’s specific interests. Through these experiences we ensure our guests are fulfilled and take away lasting memories and, in their own way, leave a legacy.

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LUX: Many luxury hotels are embracing technology as a way of fulfilling guest experiences. How do you meet the demands of technologically hungry generation whilst still providing a sense of escape?
Joss Kent: We find that our guests want to disconnect from technology and reconnect with families and friends, sharing a meal and talking instead of everyone being distracted by their personal devices. We make this easier to do by trying to limit the connectivity options at our camps to our designed-by-nature lodge rooms, such as at andBeyond Sandibe Okavango Safari Lodge. After all, why stare at a screen when you could be looking out on the best of the Okavango Delta?

LUX: Alongside the camps in Africa, andBeyond offers travel experiences in a handful of destinations across Asia and South America, such as the Maldives, Bhutan, Chile and Peru. Why those particular destinations?
Joss Kent: These days, travellers are looking towards lesser discovered destinations and this is where we choose to operate.

In terms of the countries that we operate in, our vision is necessarily a long term one, as meaningful conservation and community development work takes a long time to develop, implement and measure. It has taken andBeyond 27 years to achieve our vision in Africa and we are continually developing and refining our activities there.

Private plunge pool at the andBeyond Phinda Rock Lodge suite

In Asia and South America, it is our intent, over a medium to long period of time, to replicate what we have done and achieved in Africa. Over the past two years we have started by establishing solid operating platforms (people, offices, touring and ground handling capabilities) on these continents and in those countries that we have chosen for the expansion of the andBeyond vision and model. This is vital, as it means we can now start to engage with governments, NGOs and individuals in seeking out areas of meaningful conservation impact and doing detailed assessments of whether our model will practically work. We have been actively in that assessment stage for 12 months now. It is as a result of the assessment phase that we are now specifically focusing on Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Chile, Argentina and Peru (the Amazon) as the core countries in which we can actively expand our model and vision.

Very soon we hope to have news on some big ideas that we believe in time will become very meaningful conservation and community development projects. They span large geographic areas and are complex and will take time to come to fruition. In parallel, we are close to announcing our first lodge on the ground in Asia (Bhutan) and have just made an announcement regarding andBeyond Vira Vira in South America (Chile). These all form part of the important build-up of our presence and capabilities and are the forerunners of the impactful 3Cs model work that will follow.

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LUX: andBeyond runs a number of community projects. How do you decide where to focus the company’s philanthropic efforts?
Joss Kent: We work collaboratively with our community development partner, Africa Foundation, whose methodology is based on a collaborative, consultative approach. Africa Foundation listens to the needs identified by the communities themselves and guides them in the process of considering the appropriate projects to address these needs. It then works directly with a project committee, consisting of community members who have been proactive in engaging with local stakeholders. Each project is led by a local champion from the community. Africa Foundation focuses on four key development areas that support community empowerment: education, healthcare and clean water, small business development and environment and conservation. Whenever we are looking to build or acquire a new lodge, we ensure that our impact model can be put into practice in every way so that it benefits the land, wildlife and people. Therefore, there are community projects taking place at each of our owned and managed lodges.

LUX: What’s next for andBeyond? Any upcoming openings?
Joss Kent: We have a lot of exciting projects in the pipeline, including the continued revamp of our existing lodges, the rebuild of andBeyond Phinda Homestead in South Africa (due to open in September). The refurbishment of andBeyond Bateleur Camp in Kenya is almost completed and andBeyond Phinda Vlei Lodge in South Africa also recently reopened with a new look. We also have the brand new andBeyond Tengile River Lodge in the prestigious Sabi Sand Game Reserve opening in December.

Over the past three years we have also taken major steps forward in our long-term goal of exporting our impact model out of Africa and into South America. We believe that the expertise and knowledge we have gained in Africa can, in time, create a meaningful impact on this beautiful continent and we are thrilled to be managing our first lodge in South America. As of September, andBeyond Vira Vira in the Chilean Lake District will be added to our expanding portfolio of lodges. For Asia, watch this space! We have exciting developments in the pipeline for Bhutan.

andBeyond Serengeti Under Canvas guest tents

LUX: Do you have a favourite andBeyond camp, and why?
Joss Kent: While all the andBeyond lodges have their own distinct feel, I have to admit andBeyond Serengeti Under Canvas is a favourite of mine. It really does take you back to the time of the old mobile safaris. The camp has a very light footprint, and the experience is all about the guide, the habitat and the wildlife, which are only separate from you by a thin layer of canvas. It gives guests the chance to really unplug in a technical world. There is nothing that beats relaxing around a proper campfire, or the bush TV, as well call it. Here you can fall asleep to the sounds of the Great Migration, curled up against a hot water bottle, and wake up to the sunrise peeking through the canvas flaps of your tent. At the end of a great day out in the bush, preferably walking, you can relax under a piping hot bucket shower under an African night sky.

LUX: How do you relax?
Joss Kent: I love outdoor activities like mountain biking, trail running, kite surfing, polo and riding. I have also recently got into night-time meditation using the Headspace app.

andbeyond.com

William Kentridge, “The Refusal of Time”

William Kentridge, “The Nose”

Travelling from the Whitechapel Gallery in London to Museum der Moderne , Salzburg, “Thick Time” by William Kentridge is an intriguing and comprehensive exhibition investigating the South African artist’s multimedia dialogues with themes such as colonialism, racial capitalism and revolution. Sketchy, charcoal animations, video installations and drawings fill both of the museum’s spaces in a giddy insight into Kentridge’s complex and macabre aesthetic.

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Yet it’s the theatrical elements that are perhaps the most captivating and revealing. As an actor, producer, set and costume designer, Kentridge’s visual art is heavily influenced by performance and narrative; the exhibition’s opening was timed to coincide with the premiere of Kentridge’s production of “Wozzeck” at the Salzburg Festival and tracks the artist’s theatrical career from the late 1970s to present through a display of posters, designs, models and costumes. Kentridge is a maker of worlds. His work across all mediums is textured, dark and completely consuming.

William Kentridge, “Second-hand Reading”

Millie Walton

“Thick Time: Installations and Stagings” runs until 5th November 2017 at Museum der Moderne, Salzburg

The Rovos vintage train at Matjiesfontein. Image by James Houston

Journeying through desert, diamond fields and wine lands, South Africa’s luxurious vintage train line takes Digital Editor, Millie Walton from the country’s capital of Pretoria to Cape Town

“Has anyone travelled with us before?” A few hands shoot up. “More than twice?” A few down. “More than three times?” One hand remaining. “How many times have you travelled with us, sir?” “Eight,” replies a balding man who looks like he spends his time smoking cigars in a white tuxe (this was affirmed later on). We all gasp. Eight times on the most luxurious train in the world. Rohan Vos, the founder of Rovos Rail, smiles, “It should be you up here doing the welcome talk.”

Vos, a tall, distinguished looking gentleman with a strong South African accent, purchased his first coach in 1985: a 1938 Class 19D locomotive from Lowenthal’s Scrap Metal in Johannesburg renamed BIANCA after his daughter. His intention was to restore the carriages and hitch them to a South African Railways train as a family caravan, but the tariff for hauling the train was extortionate unless he sold tickets and so, quite naturally, the Pride of Africa was born.

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It’s time to board. Our wonderful, young hostess Lizzy gives us the grand tour of our lavish suite and asks us how we’d like our mini-fridge to be stocked. All complimentary, of course. Then its to the observation car for high tea: champagne, cake, sandwiches and biltong as the train rolls through the goldfields of the Witwatersrand. At 7.30pm the gong rings for a five course dinner in the old-fashioned dining cart. Most of this journey is spent heavily sated with food and alcohol. I’m not quite sure how one would survive the 15 day ramble through South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Tanzania. The excess is all part of the nostalgia, harkening back to a time without weight watchers and juices cleanse, when wealth was illustrated by the plumpness of your breasts. When you’re travelling past townships and bare-footed children running along the train tracks though, it does all seem a bit (forgive the pun) tasteless especially when you’re sitting back unbuckling your trousers too stuffed to finish the last few bites of lobster tail. However, tourism like this is crucial to supporting the South African economy; Rovos alone provides many job opportunities and tries where possible to use locally sourced produce. You’re by no means changing the world, but at least when your champagne is being topped up, you can rest in the knowledge that you are making some kind of contribution.

The day bed in the Royal Suite. Image by Rovos Rail

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During the night the train rattles through eerily barren landscapes crossing the border between the maize lands of western Transvaal and the Orange Free State, arriving into Kimberley shortly after breakfast. Once the wealthiest city in the world and still home to the De Beers headquarters, Kimberley is surprisingly unvisited by tourists and as such, has remained delightfully trapped in the distant past. We stand for a while in awe on the suspended viewing platform that juts out over the Big Hole, 580ft deep and a mile wide, filled with turquoise water before wandering round the diamond museum to marvel at some of the gems found embedded in the kimberlite.

Golden fields through the train’s window. Image by James Houston

There’s something wonderfully cinematic and romantic about lying on your day bed watching the landscape change from the green marshlands of the diamond fields into the harsh, semi-desert of the Karoo. Through the night we bound across Beaufort West, the “Capital of the Karoo”, famous as the home of Christiaan Barnard, who performed the world’s first successful heart transplant. The night sky is startlingly clear scattered with thousands of burning white stars. On the hills, the tops of what look like wind mills dance with coloured LEDs.

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The train pulls up somewhere in the middle of nowhere shortly after day break for those who wish to walk the next 5 kilometres to Matjiesfontein,a tiny settlement founded by a Scottish railwayman, James Douglas Logan. The short stretch of tarmac with a colonial style hotel, an old fashioned post office and sun worn, pastel coloured petrol pumps leads into dust and desert. It’s a lonely kind of place, preserved just as it would have been when Logan planted his first handful of seeds. The museum is a labyrinth of underground caves piled high with ancient furniture, type writers, medical equipment, dolls and trinkets. It’s hard to imagine that this quiet place was where 10,000 soldiers were based during the Boer War.

Table Mountrain looms majestic at dusk. Image by Millie Walton

After miles more of desolation, the train enters the Hex River tunnels, emerging blinking into the lush fertility of the Hex River Valley. This is South Africa’s wine lands where white dutch country style houses stand orderly amongst the vines. The train heaves to a stop alongside golden fields of corn and cows grazing. We sip cocktails and wait. There’s a rumour that the train lines have been stolen, we’re going to be delayed here for some hours. How delightful! In fact, when we do get rolling again the sun is just setting. Through the pink and orange hue, and streaming smoke of a wild fire Table Mountain appears.

Discover more itineraries by Rovos Rail: rovos.com