The Perfect Red
Reflections on Global Creativity, Craft & Culture from Harper & Benita, the founders of Proud Mary
There’s a way this usually goes.
We find an artist or a collective through a partner organization, or through years of building relationships. We learn their technique, their materials, their scale. We understand what they can make — and then we design into that. The work that comes out of it is genuinely collaborative, but there’s a structure to it. Parameters. A design brief, even a loose one.
How our new collection came together was completely different. I have known about Ta’na’na's work (and their parent org, CPALI) for years. Having explored the potential for a collaboration almost a decade ago, I knew that when the time was right, I really wanted to work together. I’ve always loved their aesthetic and as their work has evolved I’ve come to love it more and more. The whimsy. The color. The texture of the wild silk itself, coarser and warmer than you'd expect. So I reached out and asked if they'd be interested in creating some works for Proud Mary.
That was basically it.
Minimal parameters. Just: come along, create and show us what you make when it’s your vision to drive.
What they produced was extraordinary. Five pieces, each one distinct, each one fully theirs. And this one, ‘Folera Mena’, stopped me in my tracks. That red. That perfect red, in exactly the right place.
Last week I finally got to put a face to the work — including the artist behind the piece I haven't been able to stop thinking about. Her name is Zoelah.
Her. Not us. We only invited her to come along. How she did that was entirely up to her.
More from this collection soon.
x Harper
I LOVE this artist's work. And your model is everything. Thank you for bringing light to this f-ed up timeline through lifting up artists and their creations.