EX ASTRA marks the third woodblock edition from South African artist Faith XLVII. Translating from latin, ‘from the stars’ this set of twelve prints celebrates and signifies the yearly turning of time. 

The process of carving and layering call to mind ritual practice, the shapes and colours intuitively formed for that specific month. EX ASTRA taps into an ancient recognition of the cadence of the phases that shape us, the prints themselves serving as talismans to guide and protect.

Created in collaboration with South Atlantic Press, South Africa, with master printmaker Georgina Berens, each individual layer has been carefully hand carved and printed on delicate Shirakaba paper, from the Awagami Factory in Tokushima, Japan.

Each print runs in an edition of 100, with 30 special box sets designed by Dreampress.

Liberty Du,  who is widely recognised as Faith XLVII, is a South African known as one of the world’s most prominent female street artists under the name Faith47. Her artistic journey began on the streets of South Africa in 1997, as a young graffiti writer, and her iconic works are a part of the fabric of many Cape Town neighbourhoods. Since 2006, she has further developed her multidisciplinary artistic practice, exploring both the monumental and the intimate, the private and the public. Beyond her recent forays into woodcarving, her art takes the form of murals, video installations, sculptures, tapestries and drawings.

Rooted in her street based practice, Faith XLVII continues to interrogate and subvert notions of value, place and human domination, exploring the shape of human perception. She seeks the elusive notion of the Divine, a deeper connection with the ancient wisdoms of the natural world.