Yolandé Gouws is a South African artist and curator living and working in Barcelona and Berlin. With French Hugenot origins, she feels deeply inspired to continue the craft of weaving of her ancestors.
Emerging from a shared commitment to material intelligence and the quiet precision of craft, Yolandé’s practice can be described as being at the intersection of weaving, nature studies, and architecture.
Her works are meticulously composed of natural materials, often of hand-spun silk, wood, and found materials, evoking a language of tension, balance, and subtle movement, where each thread carries both structure and fragility. With the understanding that craftsmanship is understood as a form of knowledge transmitted through the hand, her works reveal a deep continuity between making, thinking, and living.
Her practice reflects on the origins of culture in craft and community - on how spaces are shaped not only by architecture, but by the gestures, materials, and rhythms that inhabit them. By referencing weaving and architecture, her poetsic works remind us of the origins of culture in craft and community.
She believes in the interconnectedness of all things, from single threads to the multiverse.
Emerging from a shared commitment to material intelligence and the quiet precision of craft, Yolandé’s practice can be described as being at the intersection of weaving, nature studies, and architecture.
Her works are meticulously composed of natural materials, often of hand-spun silk, wood, and found materials, evoking a language of tension, balance, and subtle movement, where each thread carries both structure and fragility. With the understanding that craftsmanship is understood as a form of knowledge transmitted through the hand, her works reveal a deep continuity between making, thinking, and living.
Her practice reflects on the origins of culture in craft and community - on how spaces are shaped not only by architecture, but by the gestures, materials, and rhythms that inhabit them. By referencing weaving and architecture, her poetsic works remind us of the origins of culture in craft and community.
She believes in the interconnectedness of all things, from single threads to the multiverse.
Background
Yolandé Gouws has a Masters degree in architecture and qualified under Sam Chermayeff and Johanna Meyer Grohbrügge at the Dessau Institue of Architecture, Germany.
She went on to work closely with Danish Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, supporting him in his Berlin studio to realise his visions, including a diverse range of artworks and international exhibitions.
In 2018 she spent two months at an art residency in a remote village in Japan. This experience affected her deeply and moved her to pursue her own art practice focussed on her own French Hugenot origins and the inherited craft of weaving.
At the core of her practice is the expression of peace: her works are meditative and calm, and all materials are responsibly sourced. The silk used in her work is Ahisma, peace silk: the moths are allowed to escape from the cocoons before the cocoons are used. As such there are many imperfections in the thread where it is joined. All works are purely handmade and unique.
CV
2007
Bsc. Arch University of Pretoria
2011
M.Arch Dessau Institue of Architecture
2011 - 2017
Studio Olafur Eliasson (architect, art production, curation)
2018
Exhibition Fine Lines at Dzialdov, Berlin, curated by Natalie Körner (click for link)
Art Residency at Moriumius, Ogatsu, Japan
2019
Studio Alicja Kwade (architect, art production)
2020
Group Show SENSUS at MONOM, Berlin (click for link)
2020, 2021, 2022
HOT MESS Group Art Show - founder and curator together with Vanja Zanko (click for link)
2023 - 2025
Fotografiska Berlin (exhibitions manager)
2025
Art residency at Tailhos, France
Exhibition Being Seen Being at Awen, Berlin, curated by Asya Yaghmurian (click for link)