SHENIQUE NAUDE
BIO:
Shenique values transcendence and connection above all else. Transcendence is what allows her to feel freed by the inability to define her ‘design style’, it causes her to push boundaries and avoid outcomes that can be easily labelled. Connection is demonstrated through the confluence of history and culture; it results in her designs feeling established and cohesive with its surroundings. She intends to model that design can contradict itself, it can pay homage to the past while meeting contemporary expectations, it can place value on objects without feeling superficial, and it can be worthy of international standards but simultaneously respect the land it thrives on.
DESIGN STATEMENT:
The Japanese art of Kintsugi is one that embraces flaws and promotes the acceptance of imperfection. Hotel Kintsugi embodies this by calling upon the rich history of Darwin and Japan and the wounds that remain from World War II. As pieces of broken pottery are mended with gold lacquer, so too, will the fractured pieces of a tainted past be brought together, with the hotel acting as the platform which allows the two cultures to intertwine with a result that is immersive in its emotive quality.
