liveWORK | The Origins of THE ADMIRALS RESIDENCE
An essay on the origins of THE ADMIRALS RESIDENCE, exploring how artistic practice, domestic space and conversation gradually developed into an artist-led cultural platform in Muizenberg.
An essay on the origins of THE ADMIRALS RESIDENCE, exploring how artistic practice, domestic space and conversation gradually developed into an artist-led cultural platform in Muizenberg.
Some artists draw or paint beauty. Some confront brutality in reality. Athenkosi Kwinana does both, often at the same time.
Born in the Eastern Cape and now based in Johannesburg, Athenkosi’s work emerges from a deeply personal yet politically charged terrain — the daily experience of living with Albinism in South Africa.
Lauren Bickerdike’s work doesn’t shout. It reverberates.
Based in Limerick, Ireland, Lauren is a multimedia artist working across photography, sound, and installation. Her work explores how environments — social, political, ecological — leave echoes in the human body.
“I’m interested in the residue. What remains. The sounds that linger after a place has been left.”
She does not chase spectacle. She listens to what’s been left unsaid.
“Sometimes the most radical thing we can do is pause. Pay attention. Let the body speak first.”
During the Safe Spaces residency, Alicia’s presence has been quiet but unmistakable — a kind of gravitational field.
A Salon Dinner
Hosted at The ADMIRALS RESIDENCE
In honour of our resident artists: Alicia Blam • Lauren Bickerdike • Athenkosi Kwinana
Here, three artists — from Spain, Ireland, and South Africa — have been listening deeply.
To each other. To this place. To those who feel Muizenberg as home.
Safe Spaces – A Closing Exhibition at The ADMIRALS RESIDENCE
in collaboration with artists: Alicia Blam • Lauren Bickerdike • Athenkosi Kwinana
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Over the past month, our residency has held many things: the hum of shared silence, the laughter of new connections, the delicate work of creating across difference. Through slow conversation and deep listening, we have gathered stories from the Muizenberg community — not to capture them, but to let them shape something living.