The night of 1000 angels

In January 2020 Heike met the owner of Good Hope Farm in Paarl. After some inspirational conversation he commissioned her to make a flight of angels – he called it “The night of 1000 Angels”.

The interior design of the house was cluttered but fascinating and Heike’s task was to transform the space to flow and function and to speak like a work of art.

The house is full of polarities and she carefully selected and re-arranged the furniture to form a calm contrast to the bold, expressive works of art in multiple bright colors. This shift stylishly brings the Cape Dutch architecture and elements of Africa such as zebra and cowhide to life and ready to receive the 1000 angels.

Heike’s sculptural installation flows over 15m and connects 6 rooms. Each angel is unique, handcrafted and hung individually from the ceiling. The heavenly angels gently spread their wings as they fly through the house and bring the blessing and lightness of heaven; a balance to the heaviness of the African-earthy elements of the house, such as clay pots, various horned skulls, wooden branches and terracotta tiles.

Solid black chandeliers, decorated with glass horns, bring the light. Seemingly contradicting each other, heaven and earth, light and dark, lightness and heaviness are skillfully combined here. And in the middle level, in which we humans move, the tables, which run like a line through the house, invite us to take a seat and welcome us to our own magical universe.

In a creative process taking 8 months, Heike researched angels, wings and different light-weight materials and then established 4 different basic angel shapes which formed the template from which all angels were hand-cut.

The flat angel is then heat-treated, sealed, and individually moulded and shaped by Heike, giving each one a different character and expression, wing shape and form.

The angels are airbrushed smoothly and double coated with a thick white paint on the wings to allow a textured hand-painting technique, representing the feathers of the wings. When the wings are dry and held up against the light, the texture allows a translucency. Finally, Heike seals each angel with her signature.

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