Hannelie Bekker

Rationale

The Wrapt Knitwear studio is based at Victoria Yards in Johannesburg, a complex of weathered industrial buildings surrounded by an urban farm.

While the buildings slowly peel and flake the abundant plant life moves through cycles of various durations, creating constantly shifting juxtapositions between the architectural and the botanical.

The precinct feels like a microcosm of urban life, where man-made and natural, soft and hard, ephemeral and enduring exist in intimate proximity.

In the pieces on show at the Kim Sacks Gallery, we use a range of knitting techniques to depict some of these pervasive botanical elements.

There are the aloes that burst into glorious bloom every Joburg winter, the Highveld grass of the Melville Koppies, Constitution Hill, and other pieces of veld in the city, and the nasturtiums that grow abundantly at Victoria Yards.

Each piece is a small tribute to the botanical in our urban world: for showing us that fragility and resilience can co-exist, for proving that nature is more ingenious than we can comprehend, and for gladdening our eyes every day.

Hannelie Bekker

Following 30 years in television and content management, Hannelie started Wrapt Knitwear in 2018, opting for the concrete and tactile pleasure of making things as a second career.

A life-long textile enthusiast, she loves knitting for its ability to fashion both beauty and functionality out of a piece of string, as well as for its deep sense of heritage, combined with endless scope for innovation. She chooses to work in natural fibers for their beauty, sustainability, and durability, as well as the sheer tactile pleasure of handling, using and wearing them.