I enjoy how each element in the cake is intentional and how it can distort the overall shape, focal point, create movement, and evoke a feeling. Different flowers and fruits have such different moods suggested by their colors, shapes, and scale. I try to mimic parts of nature - through various rock textures - some based on rocks that I’ve collected from my travels and some imagined.
I think nature is perfect and I’m always amazed by how things can simply occur without human interference. Rocks also come in endless shapes and colors, so I feel like the possibilities are endless! I feel like my lack of formal training in patisserie allows me to explore unconventional ways of making things.Īs you said, many elements of your cakes are nature-inspired, from mossy textures to edible flowers. I’m always looking at non-cake sources of inspiration, like art, design, film, and fashion. How do you continue to think up unique artistic elements to incorporate into your creations? Your cakes are like edible art arrangements, some even look way too beautiful to eat. It wasn’t until I began to create my own style and work more unconventionally that I realized cakes could be the medium for expressing my creative side and also my passion for food.
When I started baking, I thought it was just a hobby. My mum was also an incredible cook, so food has always been a major part of my upbringing. Seeing how passionate my dad was about baking bread all those years and how food brought people together made me want to do the same with the cakes. Baking during the early part of the pandemic was a way to feel connected without being together. I haven’t seen my family in over four years. But I know I would never be able to make cakes the way I do without having experience as a designer.ĭo you feel more fulfilled and connected to your family’s roots and traditions through this career path? Their hard work as bakers gave me the opportunity to follow my own path in art and fashion. In the 70s, they escaped the Pol Pot regime, lived in a refugee camp in Thailand for two years, and arrived in New Zealand with nothing but the shirts on their backs and a baby, my eldest sister. No, I really didn’t want to pursue any sort of hospitality career because I saw how hard my parents worked, waking up before dawn, and working seven days a week with hardly a day off. Growing up around your parents’ bakery in New Zealand, did you ever think you would end up in a career in the same space, many years later? Italian meringue buttercream is pretty unforgiving. A huge difference is that I can’t just command Z and undo something while I’m decorating a cake. Additionally, my experience working within color palettes, matching colors to Pantones, and analyzing lab dips from mills has made me a bit obsessive with color. I learned how the compositions of each print changed the overall feeling of a garment - which is not that different from the way I think about composing cakes.
I spent the last six years arranging print motifs in the corporate fashion world. You came from the fashion world and now make cakes that are unlike any I’ve ever seen before! What lessons did you take with you from the fashion industry into this new realm? Read office’s full interview with the whimsical, surrealism-inspired baker below. The hardcover will memorialize the performance and provide an intimate perspective into the explorations that went into its birth. The works within the monograph feature conversations between Knowles and collaborators such as Chloe Wayne Sultan and Greg Bryant, as well as reflections from other members of the creative team behind the performance. The monograph, presented by Knowles’ multidisciplinary creative outlet, Saint Heron, is published by Anteism, a Canadian publishing outlet specializing in contemporary artists’ books. I feel like this piece specifically was a moment of mourning, was a moment to express how much grief comes from loss, to be able to bury it and to have a service for that.” Knowles explains, “ piece gave me permission to myself to feel it all. In Past Pupils and Smiles is a testament to the intense ideation and collaboration which brought forth the Biennale performance: an experiment in visuals, sound, and movement exploring the meaning of safety, protection, and identity. In a follow-up to her groundbreaking closing ceremony performance at the 2019 Venice Biennale, Solange Knowles has announced the release of a 188-page monograph that shares its name with the performance.
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