This was a fun project!
Vanessa from 4G wines saw one of my maps online, and contacted me to ask if I could do a special one for them – for a wine label! I was thrilled at the idea of having my artwork on a wine label, and set to work.
Vanessa was somewhat mysterious about how the map was to be used. I was curious. She invited me to the London launch of their vintage so I could see it in person, when the bottle design was to be unveiled.
The event was at the Banksy gallery on the Charing Cross Road. On display was the 2018 vintage named “Going, going, gone”. The name is a reference to a 2018 event at an auction house. A Banksy painting, “Girl with a Balloon”, apparently started to self-destruct by feeding itself through a shredder embedded in the picture frame. The shredding process started immediately the auctioneer’s hammer came down to mark the sale of the work, hence “Going, going, gone”.
4G make their bottles into intriguing works of art. The label on the bottle is a beautiful design by the artist Sebastian Blinde, showing elements of South African nature.
The secret in this vintage is the map – my map! – made visible by shining ultra-violet light onto the label.
It was such fun to see it. There is an X on the map to mark the position of an original Banksy mural “Girl with a Balloon”.
The inscription below the map reads:
“EN WAT MET LIEFDE GEDAAN WORDT, DAT WORDT GOED GEDAAN”
This is another subtle artistic reference. It is a quote from a letter of Vincent van Gogh written on 3 April 1878, according to the website of the Vincent Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam on this page of his letters.
“And what is done with love, is done well.”
An excellent motto, for both wine and art.
Jane Sketching 