"Lamb of Hope" presentation by Li Edelkoort | Exhibition walkabout of "The Last Straw, From Needle Point to Infinity Point"

"Lamb of Hope" presentation by Li Edelkoort | Exhibition walkabout of "The Last Straw, From Needle Point to Infinity Point"

Join us for a guided walkabout of The Last Straw, From Needle Point to Infinity Point, an exhibition of Natural and Animal Fibre works, co-curated by VIVIERS, Li Edelkoort and Philip Fimmano.

THE LAMB OF HOPE

A Sermon by Li Edelkoort

As an agent of God, Allah and Buddha, the Lamb can be seen as a universal symbol of innocence and salvation. In matters of textiles, we choose the immaculate qualities of wool to create angelic yarns and endearing knits that swaddle humans to feel secure, protected and content. In this special sermon delivered especially for the creative community, Li Edelkoort will share inspiring words of wisdom to help reconsider sustainability, consumption and conscious design. Covering pertinent ideas such as morals and ethics, faith and fulfilment, compassion and revelation, hope and redemption, this presentation offers attendees the opportunity to gather, connect and reflect. Guests will receive a printed copy of Li’s soft manifesto and have the opportunity to privately view the exhibition ‘The Last Straw, Needle Point to Infinity Point’ staged as part of the Investec Cape Town Art Fair.

"The last straw” signals a moment of collective rupture. Has humanity reached a critical point - a limit in the way we treat the Earth, treat one another, value labour, and pull materials apart from their origins, rushing them through systems that no longer serve life? The last straw names this moment: the rupture point where something has to change.

Bringing together both local and international voices, the exhibition is presented in an Art Deco penthouse within the historic Old Mutual Building in Cape Town.

The walkabout includes a guided sermon, Lamb of Hope, presented by Li Edelkoort, over a glass of Krone MCC.

Featuring pieces by Aelahn, Anika Lötter, Bev Butkow, Bevan de Wet, Camilla Pontiggia, Cape Cobra Leathercraft, Chantel Zalaiskalns, Christine Jacobs, Claudy Jongstra, Connade, Cool Tabs, Crystal Birch, Curación × UNI FORM, Daisie Jo, Daniel Costa, Design Academy of Fashion, Elizabeth Galloway, FEDISA Fashion School, Frances V.H Mohair, Gerber & Co, Gina Niederhumer represented by Kim Sacks Gallery, Hannelie Bekker, Heino Schmitt Design, Helderstroom Alpaca, James Barry Slabbert, Lee At-Meyerov represented by Berman Contemporary Gallery, Leila Atelier, Lucie Panis-Jones represented by Kim Sacks Gallery, Maddelein Anderson, Marlene Steyn represented by SMAC Gallery, Melissa Fontini, Merchants on Long, Michaela Younge, Michael Ludwig, Miro van der Vloed, Myrtle Edwards, Naked Ape, Nina Kruger, Nwabisa Ntlokwana, OKRA Candle, Onesimo Ban, Oyuna Tserendorj, Pascale Gatzen, Pascale Theron, Paul Kristafor represented by Kim Sacks Gallery, Polo South Africa, Potrend, Quenti Alpaca, Renee Roussow, Rita Trafford, Rodan Kane Hart represented by THEFOURTH, Ronel Jordaan, Sabrina Stadlober, Sada Sabbagha, Salabim, Stephanie Bentum Textiles, Tali-Lehr Sacks represented by Kim Sacks Gallery, Tosca Lizard, UNI FORM by Luke Radloff, Verónica Querubín and VIVIERS

Proudly supported by Mohair South Africa, Cape Wools SA, Krone, Polo South Africa, Gerber & Co and House and Leisure

With Special thanks to Hannerie Visser

DATE: 17/02/2026

TIME 5:15PM - 6:15PM

VENUE: Mutual Heights Apartment 1101, 14 Darling, Street, Cape Town CBD

TICKETS: R1050,00 pp

Meet The Curators:

LIDEWIJ EDELKOORT is arguably the world's most renowned trend forecaster, working in industries from fashion to food, design, lifestyle, beauty, communication, luxury and retail. Founded in 1986, her company Trend Union produces trend tools for strategists, designers and marketers at brands from Zara to Prada. She is also a publisher, humanitarian, educator and exhibition curator. Edelkoort has been named one of the Most Influential People in Fashion and one of the Most Influential People in Design. Her much-talked about ANTI_FASHION Manifesto, presented at BoF VOICES in 2016, raised awareness about the shifts and upheavals experienced in the global fashion industry. From 1998—2008 she was Chairwoman of Design Academy Eindhoven before moving to New York from 2015—2020 where she was Dean of Hybrid Design Studies at Parsons, establishing an MFA Textile masters and New York Textile Month. In 2020, in response to the covid-19 pandemic, she co-founded the World Hope Forum as a platform to inspire the creative community to rebuild a better society. From 2022—2025, Edelkoort collaborated with Polimoda in Florence where she created an innovative textile masters called Farm to Fabric to Fashion. Her latest publications are Proud South, Proud South Craft and Uxua Utopia, each of which celebrate the creative talent of the Global South.

PHILIP FIMMANO is a trend analyst and consultant at Trend Union, working in publishing and strategic studies for international companies in fashion, textiles, interiors and lifestyle. As a design curator, he has created exhibitions for prominent museums and institutions, including the Arnhem Fashion Biennale, Lille Métropole 2020 International Design Capital, Textiel museum in Tilburg, Design Museum Holon and 21_21 Design SIGHT in Tokyo. In 2011, Philip co-founded Talking Textiles with Li Edelkoort; an ongoing initiative to promote awareness and innovation in textiles through touring exhibitions, an annual publication, a design prize and free educational programmes. He is the co-author of the design book A Labour of Love (Lecturis, 2020) and the co-founder of the World Hope Forum, an online platform for creative community building and sustainable practice. Philip is the mentor of Polimoda's Fashion Trend Forecasting masters in Florence. He is also a founding board member of New York Textile Month and serves on the boards of F.I.T.’s Textile Department, the International Folk Art Market in Santa Fe and the Xtant textile festival in Mallorca.

LEZANNE VIVIERS is a Johannesburg-based conceptual fashion designer, (he)artist, and founder of VIVIERS. Her practice experiments with sculpture through cloth, co-creating with artisans to enquire into the mysteries of life. Working in liminal spaces, at the precipice where art, fashion, craft, and design cohere, her work occupies a charged, in-between terrain. Guided by material intelligence that is considerate of both Mother Nature and humanity, Viviers is interested in how the individual forms part of a greater whole.

Read Below for the full Curatorial Statement:

The Last Straw, From Needle Point to Infinity Point

“The last straw” signals a moment of collective rupture. Has humanity reached a critical point—a limit in the way we treat the Earth, treat one another, value labour,

and pull materials apart from their origins, rushing them through systems that no longer serve life? The last straw names this moment: the rupture point where something has to change. Created by artists, designers, and craftspeople from around the world, the exhibition’s fibre works are grounded in this thinking, but the conversation ripples outward...

Natural fibre feels like the right place to start.

Wool and mohair, alongside alpaca and cashmere, and other responsibly sourced natural fibres, all carry a kind of quiet intelligence. They come from life—from land, climate, and care. They hold time; they carry memories, and they have meaning. They are beholden to hands. When you work with these materials, you can’t rush them—they ask for your attention, your patience, and your respect. In that way, these fibres are no longer textiles alone. They become a line that connects animals to humans, hands to hearts, and the past to the present and into the future...

From the breaking point—the last straw—the exhibition moves toward the needle point. This is the smallest place where change actually happens. A needle pierces, joins, repairs. It’s precise. It’s intimate. It demands one’s presence. The needle point speaks to the labour behind fibre—the herding, shearing, spinning, weaving, knitting, felting, stitching—but it also points to something larger: the idea that transformation doesn’t begin with grand gestures and unkept promises, but with careful ones. We have reached this point. The needle is not seen as an instrument of creation and repair alone, but as a point of convergence: where natural materials meet the maker, where every choice becomes visible... The singular Iconverges with the collective Eye.

We are interested in what happens at these fine points of contact—where our chosen material meets our purest intention. Making becomes a form of care—for humanity, for Mother Nature.

The exhibition’s fibre works are grounded in this thinking, but the conversation ripples outward... The exhibition introduces material thresholds through the inclusion of other contemporary visual artists working with different materials and practices that hold similar values—even if they speak a slightly different visual language. Artists who work with clay, paper, and foraged earth, and who feel deeply connected to the land and the human heart, are considered, as their materials act as thresholds rather than departures.

Paper echoes fibre in its fragility and strength. Clay carries the weight of place—soil and earth. These materials hold the tension between control and collapse, permanence and vulnerability. Together, they expand the fibre conversation into a wider material ecology—one where everything feels made, touched, negotiated, and considered at the point of convergence.

From the needle point, the exhibition opens toward what we think of as the infinity point: the human heart. Borrowed from the idea of heart coherence—the point in the heart where love lives without limit—this isn’t meant as something abstract or unreachable. It’s grounded. It’s felt. It’s about remembering that care, when centred, spirals outward.

This is where craft becomes quietly radical. Not decorative. Not nostalgic. But a way of choosing slowness in a culture of speed. Choosing relationships over extraction. Choosing repair over replacement.

The Last Straw, Needle Point to Infinity Point stands at these thresholds, at this precipice of change—to notice the small gestures, the held materials, the points where something is intentionally joined rather than mindlessly torn apart: a brushstroke as the biggest gesture, clay coiled in communion. It asks what might be possible if we paid attention there. If we let care lead. If we trusted that even the finest thread, held with loving intention, can extend far beyond what we can see. From this rupture emerges the needle point—the site of precision, care, and intentional intervention—extending through our ever-expanding infinity point.