It’s nothing new that Artclub and Friends are stalwarts of the local apparel community but their latest collection and campaign, “Moved By You”, has been brought to life by dancers Gaetan, Tayla, and CC Martinez and Director Ryan Hing of EVOLVE to catapult the brand even further into the upper echelons of creative expression.
The aim of the campaign is to pay homage to how much movement means in society, and how much dance means to these individuals. We spoke to Robyn Keyser, Founder and Creative Director of Artclub and Friends about their latest collection, how it came about and what it means to them.
CEC: Artclub and Friends has found yet another way to express the vision of the brand, through highlighting dance. How did the idea to collaborate with these three dancers as well as Ryan Hing come about?
Robyn: “All artistic mediums are linked in one way or another, and it’s really fulfilling for us to play between different mediums. In all honesty, we used the launch of our new capsule collection as an opportunity to highlight and celebrate dance, as opposed to choosing dance to promote our collection. The campaign was a natural and authentic way for us to introduce our new capsule that promotes moving freely and authentically in the world by collaborating with dancers who live this out every day. A huge reason why this campaign was such a success was through collaborating with the up and coming creative and production company EVOLVE who truly put their heart into bringing it to life”.
CEC: The narratives, choreography and script in the videos are so genuine and true to Gaetan, Tayla, and CC Martinez respectively – how did you choose these three dancers’ stories to share?
Robyn: “One thing we will say with our chest is that South Africa houses one of the world’s most prolific creative youth communities, so we never struggle to find talented artists to work with. We do find that one of the main challenges our talent faces is a lack of resources and funding, so this is something we are always trying to find solutions for in what we do. We sent out a call for dancers about 48 hours before we held auditions, and our team faced a sleepless night trying to select only three”.
CEC: You mentioned how these dancers, and dance in general, inspires us to move freely in the world – what does moving freely in the world mean to you?
Robyn: “Moving freely in the world to us speaks to showing up authentically in your creativity. It takes a lot of bravery to share self-expression with the world, but this is the essence of authenticity, and something we believe truly makes our world better. Artclub and Friends hopes to create spaces, whether digitally or physically, where we can all explore and connect without restriction. We dream of a community that encourages and empowers one another to move, create, and live with authenticity and joy”.
CEC: What was your favourite part of the process of bringing this to life?
Robyn: “Wow, our favourite part of the process is a tough one because the project in itself was a dream to bring to life. Our favourite part has to be that nothing was scripted, so seeing Gaetan, Tayla and CC Martinez stories come to life exactly as they chose, felt like such a powerful and liberating way to show up and support them. Each dancer had such a unique message to share through their own lens on dance. It also must be said that on the day of shooting the whole team worked so smoothly it felt like we’d been doing this for years. Those kind of perfect days creating together are so precious and reminded us why we started Artclub. To build a South African design studio that amplifies the work of artists from the African Diaspora, so that their hopes, dreams, and messages reach those that need to see, hear, and feel them. We are living out our dream in real time, and we’re taking our community along with us”.
Production company: @evolve_keepchanging
Director: @ryanhing011 @evolve_keepchanging
DOP & post production: @oscar14rush
Photographer & post production: @capturewithcaleb @evolve_keepchanging
Assistants: @jadegita @callacamacho
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