JUNE & DECEMBER 2019
Launch of Rhino Residency Initiative at Motswari Private Game Reserve
The initiative encourages the participation of artists to use their voices in the war against rhino poaching.
In June, fine artist Vanessa Berlein was based at Motswari where she had the sole use of a bush studio and access to game drives for inspiration, totally immersing herself in the natural environment to create some stunning pieces of art. Her focus was on gold leaf paintings, inspired by bush panoramas. Vanessa, who has curated and exhibited in the USA and South Africa and is concerned with human emotional response and relationship to one another and the landscape, donated a piece to Rhino Disharmony depicting rhinos with gold horns – the irony that their horn is worth more than gold on the black market.
Rhino Disharmony ambassador and fashion photographer Sara Wilson was involved with a photographic shoot at Motswari in December for #FashionSaysNo that focused on beauty with rhino symbolism and integrating rhino and fashion intrinsically. Working with Faces Magazine Switzerland, Boss Models Cape Town, Sabine Oberhuber, Carolin Herling and Jessie Crichton the team created magical imagery putting rhino conversation at the forefront of the fashion photography world. The images captured were published in Faces Magazine in 2020 and shared locally and internationally.