Joburg Photo(s) of the Week: A Brixton Mosaic

I couldn’t narrow it down to a single photo this week, so here is a series of photos I took of three artists working on a mosaic for our Brixton house.

Gavasa and Mosa work on a mosaic for our house; this one is for the bathroom in the garden cottage. I love how Gavaza’s head wrap and Mosa’s hat match the walls in Bronwen’s studio.

Mosa Mosikidi, Gavasa Mthombeni, and Simba Mgeda all work for Brixton artist Bronwen Findlay, producing intricate mosaic commissions like this big, beautiful piece at the Everard Read gallery in Rosebank. Thorsten and I are both occasional students at Bronwen’s weekly art classes and we watch her team working all the time. So Thorsten got the idea that we should hire them to create the mosaics for our two shower floors in the house we’re renovating.

The team is assembling our mosaics in Bronwen’s studio, where there is more space, and will come install them at our house once they’re finished. Bronwen’s studio also happens to be one of the most photogenic places in Brixton, so I’m taking advantage of the opportunity to take photos of the work happening there.

Simba (left), Gavasa (middle), and Mosa (right) as they were just starting the cottage shower mosaic. This mosaic will be mostly white, while the shower floor for the other bathroom will be more colorful.

The colors are coloring.

…And coloring some more.

A hint of what’s to come for the second shower floor.

If you want to see more of what’s happening with our home renovation, check out my stories and highlights on Instagram. There will also be more renovation blog posts to come. I think I need to do an entire blog post just about tiles and tiling — I have a lot to share on that topic alone. (Don’t even get me started on paint.)

Thorsten and I can’t afford a big Bronwen Findlay mosaic just yet. But we’re super excited to have these two smaller art pieces, created by artists right here in our community, in our new (old) home.

If you’re interested in learning more about the mosaics that Mosa, Simba, and Gavasa create, please contact Mosa at 063-789-3716.