welcome to Pastiche, the home of Rina's art
pastiched sculptures to beautify your world and give you joy
“A work of art is above all an adventure of the mind.” Eugène Ionesco
About
the artist
Rina Benz is a self taught artist, living in the beautiful city of Cape Town, South Africa, with her husband, two sons and two cats. Her daughter is an animation artist, currently living in Paris.
Rina creates pastiched sculptures from polymer clay, recyclables and Paverpol, combining different styles, mediums and ideas, to portray the sculpture’s story or message.
more about the artist
Rina has always been an artist, doing drama and dance at school, obtaining a BA in Drama at the university of Stellenbosch, teaching drama and dance (from Ballroom-and-Latin American to Hip-hop), moving on to painting murals at home, making invitations and decor for events and later sculpting with cake and modeling chocolate.
A dragon cake and it’s story led to a change in medium for Rina in 2018. In the search for a more permanent medium than edibles, she found Polymer clay and Paverpol and has not looked back since.
The question is always why an artist does what an artist does, and her answer : ‘I can’t help myself. There is an undeniable call in my soul to create. It brings me incredible joy, helps me bring my own thoughts on the meaning of life, the world, beauty, fantasy and imagination into being and (especially in this time of change during the pandemic) it is the best form of therapy I can imagine.’
She finds inspiration in everything, the people who cross her path, relationships, special moments, nature, Africa, art, news, events, random thoughts, stories, history, books… basically life and it’s abundant layers!
Rina works from home where the ‘braai-room’ is often filled with art-in-creations spilling out of her small studio.
Creating her sculptures is an extension of who she is and her love for ‘the journey’. Read more about the journey to Pastiche and the process under the ‘about the art’ section.
About pastiche
the journey to pastiche
As mentioned in the ‘about the artist’ section, Rina has always been an artist, dabbling in Dance, Drama, painting, décor, cake decorating and sculpting and eventually sculpting with modelling chocolate.
A dragon cake and it’s story led to a change in medium for Rina in 2018. (see the dragon’s story below)
In the search for a more permanent medium than edibles, she found Polymer clay and Paverpol . On the journey of discovering this multimedium style, Rina developed her unique signature style : the old copper look, with one colour element somewhere on the sculpture. She does make coloured pieces now and again, because “artists have to explore, we can’t help it, it’s just who we are”.
Exploring these new mediums took a more serious turn during 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant lockdown. During the scary time of uncertainty, of constantly wondering where it will all end, of being separated from the world and each of us being in our own, isolated bubble, Rina came across a wonderful mentor and group, who help and support artists to make art their living – Michelle Lloyd and her artist’s HUB. Working through Michelle’s 7 keys course Rina decided to start her business and sell her art. And voila, “Pastiche” was born.
why 'pastiche'?
‘Pastiche’ was the perfect name, because the artworks are combinations of different materials and inspiration is taken from a variety of artforms, artists and experiences pastiched together. See the ‘about pastiches’ section for the meaning of the word and other interesting pastiches through the ages.
the dragon's story
For years Rina created elaborate cakes, sculpting with cake, sugar paste, plastic icing and eventually modelling chocolate. Time and time again family and friends were saying that it was a shame that her art was made with a medium that could not last and that she should find a more permanent medium to work with. Her answer was always: “But that is part of the charm, it is not supposed to last, it should be eaten”.
That was until 2018, when she created a beautiful dragon cake for a very special friend’s 21st birthday. Up to that point cakes were delivered to the relevant party and left there, never to be seen again (And always staying perfect in memory)
But this one was different, after the party the cake and it’s chocolate dragon was left at the venue and would end up in the bin. For the first time the problem of what to do with an edible artwork, if you did not eat it and the inevitable answer… that it had to be chucked, became clear to her and “it broke my heart! I realized they were right, I had to find a long lasting medium to make art with.”
what is a pastiche?
A Pastiche is the French version of the greco-Roman dish pastitsio or pasticcio, which is a kind of pie made of lots of different ingredients.
The Oxford dictionary describes a Pastiche as “a medley of various ingredients” and according to www.lexicon.com it can be used as a noun (‘An artistic work in a style that imitates that of another work, artist, or period…An artistic work consisting of a medley of pieces imitating various sources.’) or as a verb (to ‘Imitate the style of (an artist or work)’)
A Pastiche is also an artistic genre. In this genre the artwork imitates the style or character of one or more other artworks while celebrating the artwork/s it is based on.
Pastiches through the ages
- The 18th century saw many opera pasticcios and instrumental works assembled from pre-existing compositions to create new works. Mozart’s first four piano concertos for example consists almost entirely of keyboard sonata movements by contemporary composers, with added orchestral parts to support the keyboard.
- ‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead‘, by Tom Stoppard, is a Pastiche of Hamlet.
- “Bohemian Rhapsody”, by Queen is a Pastiche. It is a prime example of how many distinct music styles are imitated and mixed together in the song to create one piece of music.
- The Star Wars-series of films by George Lucas is often considered to be a pastiche of science fiction television serials (or radio shows) of the time.
- Quentin Tarantino’s films are often described as pastiches, often imitating and paying tribute to pulp fiction, blaxploitation and kung-fu films.
About the art
the process
No artwork just happens and it is always a long and beautiful (sometimes difficult) journey. Starting with an idea, that leads to tons of research into the idea, into the elements of the idea, different artists and their interpretation of the idea and absolutely going with Picasso’s saying that ‘good artists copy, great artists steal’ concept. After hours on-line, reading, listening, looking and planning how to get the idea into being it’s time to get down to making the artwork. Combining polymer clay, recyclable materials, aluminum foil and fabric, the sculpture is created. Everything is then covered with black Paverpol before being dry brushed with copper Paverpol, to create the old copper effect. And finally the signature element of a single colour (red boots, a red heart, a golden necklace, blue beads, etc.) is added to complete the work.
Coloured works are done using the same sculpting methods, but using transparent Paverpol to complete the work.
the sculptures
The sculptures are made from Polymer clay, Paverpol, natural fabrics, glass, wood and other recycled materials. There are currently two collections included in the artists body of work. New collections will be added as new themes become apparent. The majority of the sculptures reflect Rina’s unique ‘old copper’ style with its signature single colour element. Now and again she makes a sculpture in other colours. Each sculpture comes with it’s story, as well as a certificate of authenticity. View the sculptures and their stories in our gallery. Each sculpture has its own story, which is attached to bottom of the sculpture and added with the certificate of authenticity on purchase of the sculpture.
the singles
The singles are stand alone sculptures that are not linked to collections, eventhough they might loosely link to others in theme or meaning and may later become part of collections.
the collections
Currently there are two collections:
- The ‘Africa collection’ consisting of four sculptures, ‘the guardian’, ‘the bride’, ‘indala’ and ‘reflection’.
- The ‘magical moments collection’ consisting of ‘the meeting’ and ‘bubbles’
Gallery
You can contact Rina via email rina@pastiche.co.za or our contact form
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