collection
are we there yet
2026 : 06
lines borrowed from poetic legends* – rearranged with (a LOOKBOOK-y) intention for journal 03
xx by Frances vh Mohair
Are We There Yet? is a collection that looks at time trappings, fossils, forms, and materials carved into the antiquity of the Karoo and her wrinkled past.
It’s our poem for existence and how no one thing, or being, lives in isolation; we are connected to history and prehistoric ecosystems. We remain completely dependent on rainfall, the moon, and the tides she controls. Every day we look up into a sea of blue, and at night a sky of lights, with little comprehension (and often care) of how we fit under this dome.
Are We There Yet? speaks to the everyday encounters we have within this mysterious, misunderstood, and often forgotten treasure trove of history. Each piece in this collection embraces humour, humanity, ancient fibres, and modern enchantment as a reflection of how we live on this fossilised seabed. A time trapping of now, yesterday, and how we want to thread ourselves into tomorrow.
In the studio we have played with clay, visited the depths of the Cango Caves and seen her organ of stalactite windpipes chiming softly under synthetic light.
We have broken rocks from the Swartberg Mountains and made dye pigments echoing the first colouring made by man from dust. We have made our own looms from picked-up pieces and old nails as a way of showing that weaving is simply tension and that this is a way of making it accessible to anyone, anywhere.
We may not have a technical textile industry in South Africa, but we have tension, tenacity, hands, heat, wind, and fibre. And if we make with what we have, it becomes way more interesting than what already exists somewhere else.
We have shared our studio with young people from our community and with them made outfits for the rieldansers – dancers who fold themselves into slithering snakes, donkey carts, love stories, and ostrich prancing. A modern-day expression of a dance performed around fires forever. As their feet hit the earth, the dust that we try tirelessly to settle, rises up and transforms into puffs of power and glitters in the sun.
This transformation of dust to magic is what the collection tries to capture. It is not for everyone. Some will always simply see dust. Others… well, you may just realise that you are living in a time of enchantment if you take a moment to stop and see the warp and weft as the moments placed in the middle.
