Unmourned Bodies, curated by artist/ curator Jo Rogge, at the AVA Gallery, takes a multifaceted approach to showcase the work and talent of Namibian artists to a new audience in South Africa.
- AND you are invited to a discussion/ fishbowl session with curator Jo Rogge on Saturday 25 March at 11:00.
Historically, the venue of this exhibition has close ties to the development of art in Namibia. With the concerted efforts of some individuals, the South West African Association of Arts (SWAA), based in the capital city Windhoek, now Namibian Arts Association (NAA), was established as a branch of the South African Arts Association (SAAA) in 1947.
In Namibia at this time, considered a remote “5th province of South Africa,” almost all of the important local artists were of German extraction, notably men like Adolph Jentsch and Fritz Krampe. One year later, the first official exhibition in the Cape Town premises of the SAAA included 61 paintings and 500 objects from Namibia, divided into what was called the ‘White’ section, including painters Axel Eriksson, Adolph Jentsch, Otto Schröder, Joachim Voigts, among others, and the ‘Native’ section, described as being mostly ‘handcrafts’.
It is in this regard that the current exhibition, while paying homage to the historical links between the two associations, seeks to redress the colonial presentation of Namibian cultural production through inclusion, and to highlight the contemporary blurring of art and crafts, by selecting artists that work with non-traditional materials. These artists were invited to visit the archive of the NAA, to select a work from the collection that personally resonated with them, and to recreate a unique artwork of their own in response, with some interesting and surprising results.
INVITATION to a discussion/ fishbowl session with the curator on: Saturday, 25 March at 11 – 1am
Led by Patricia Hayes, DSI/NRF SARChI Chair in Visual History & Theory, Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape (UWC).
While paying homage to the historical links between the South African and Namibian Arts Associations, this exhibition seeks to redress the colonial presentation of Namibian cultural production through inclusion, and to highlight the contemporary blurring of art and crafts. The 11 artists were invited to visit the archive of the Namibian Arts Association, to select a work from the collection and to recreate a unique artwork of their own in response.
Patricia Hayes is a scholar of African history, gender studies and visuality, Hayes began research on photography and the question of history after completing her PhD at the University of Cambridge. Initially conceived through an exhibition project on Namibia called ‘The Colonising Camera’ (1998) and supported by the innovative History Department at UWC, the research and teaching project in Visual History became firmly established. The Chair’s research and teaching converge around issues of visuality, African history, and the archive as method. Visual history brings debates around the image into a discipline that is usually silent about its epistemological underpinnings and temporal understandings. In relation to African history specifically, this inquiry into images allows an interrogation of the different mediums and analytical categories of the history of the continent, from precolonial to contemporary times.
Artists in Unmourned Bodies
Maria Caley / Stephané Conradie / Actofel Ilovu / Ju/hoansi artists and Maria Thasi / Tangeni Kambudu / Tangeni Kauzuu / Maria Mbereshu / Tuli Mekondjo Lynette Musukubili / Ndako Nghipandulwa / Jo Rogge / Rudolf Seibeb
WHAT: Unmourned Bodies
WHERE: AVA Gallery, 36 Church St, Cape Town 8001
WHEN: until 20.04.23
INFO: T 021 4247436 | E admin@ava.co.za | Visit
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