Hi, I'm Chele, the artist behind Aloka & Sol.
Before Aloka & Sol, my path was anything but linear. I studied teaching and criminal psychology, worked in fields centred on people, and spent years following a deep curiosity about how we think, connect and find meaning in our lives. Across those experiences, one theme appeared again and again: a sense of disconnection. People often seemed separated from themselves, from each other, from their communities, and from the natural world around them.
Creativity was always the place I returned to, and over time those observations found their way into my work. Aloka & Sol became a space to explore the connections between material, environment and self, and the ways we might see ourselves as part of something larger rather than separate from it.
HOW IT BEGAN
Aloka & Sol began by accident.
One afternoon, while cleaning a shower, I splashed cleaning spray across a favourite top and a pair of jeans. Frustrated by the damage, I quite literally took them off there and then, sprayed them some more, and decided to see what they might become. Instead of seeing the marks as the end of the garments, I became curious about what might happen next.
Could an accident become something beautiful?
Could something unplanned reveal possibilities I hadn't considered?
The garments that started it all.
WHAT IT BECAME
As I continued experimenting, I found myself less interested in controlling outcomes and more interested in responding to them. The same forces that shape landscapes, rivers, roots, and lives seemed to appear in cloth. Materials carried their own histories, limitations and possibilities.
What began as a creative experiment has grown into a practice centred on connection, transformation, and the beauty of seeing things differently.
Through years spent studying and working with people, I became increasingly interested in the stories we tell ourselves about value, identity and belonging. I saw how easily people came to view themselves through the lens of what had been lost, damaged or left behind.
Working with reclaimed materials brought me back to the same question from a different direction: what if the marks left by experience are not flaws to erase, but part of what makes something unique?
Aloka & Sol explores that idea through textiles, art and process. Inspired by the patterns found in nature, geology and the human experience, the work sits in the space between ruin and renewal and invites a slower way of seeing. One that recognises potential not despite what has happened, but because of it.
