We will be free

An exhibition featuring artworks by Nicky Marais, Tony Figueira, Fillipus Sheehama, Namafu Amutse, Elisia Nghidishange, Maria Mbereshu, Jakobina Gideon, Rachel Sakeus, Ndinomholo Ndilula, Vilho Nuumbala, Petrus Amuthenu and Anne Lacheiner-Kuhn

Twelve artists were invited for this exhibition to contribute works of art inspired by the song We will be free by Tschuku Tschuku featuring Nesindano Namises from the album Trance !Namib Freedom Station. The song is about reconciling the painful past while meditating on freedom and the future: “When the sun rises, when the morning comes, it will be alright.” It is a lament, an expression of what the late great artist John Muafangejo illustrates as “hope and optimism in spite of present difficulties.” The song We will be free asks us to ponder what it means to practise freedom from bondage, displacement and dispossession.

The exhibition shows artworks in a range of mediums, such as painting, photography, printmaking, textile, collage and mixed media. The participating artists are of different ages and experience levels, from the very well established to those who are just starting their careers. They represent the contemporary art scene in Namibia, which is diverse and growing at a pace. Given the musical reference that this exhibition draws on, the intergenerational selection of artworks highlights the popular use of rhythm that has historically manifested itself through the subjectivities and traditions in Namibian art. They are works not only meant to be viewed but also to be listened to.

The photographs by Vilho Numbala, Rachel Sakeus and Namafu Amutse focus on individual people. Numbala’s street style photography captures the transitory moment of a stranger dancing on the street. In contrast, Sakeus and Amutse present images of people they know well. Amutse’s siblings pose for her in the series Soft and Chrysalis. They are young boys whose identities are still being formed in the context of hegemonic narratives about masculinity and being black. Through her work Amutse tries to create a space for her subjects that is free of these stereotypes. Sakeus, for her part, presents a portrait of a friend, head tilted back, enjoying a moment of calm, a moment of selfproclaimed freedom.

Hopeful by Jakobina Gideon

Entanglement i by Maria Mbereshu

Unlike the person photography of the three younger artists, the works of Tony Figueira, selected from his archive and exhibited with the permission of his estate, span three decades and focus on hand-painted texts. From graffiti and signage to murals, these images come together as a record of the ways in which people have memorialised Namibia’s difficult struggle for freedom from South African apartheid rule and its aftermath. The broader context of these images draws a parallel with the works of Ndinomholo Ndilula whose toy soldiers appear again and again in the Komesho Art Series, trying to relocate themselves in a post-conflict society. Viewing the work of Elisia Nghidishange we are also faced with the truth that any meditation on freedom comes with the baggage of its counterpart. The topic of Nghidishange’s linocuts is the struggle itself. “Freedom does not come as a package of gifts, we shall fight for it, we shall arise and redeem our dreams of hope,” she says.

FREE by Rachel Sakeus

There is a strong history of linocut printmaking in Namibia. The legacy of John Muafangejo looms large with his gentle determination to depict the world as he saw it. In this exhibition we see a new generation of printmakers continuing that tradition. Petrus Amuthenu, Fillipus Sheehama and Elisia Nghidishange are all using linocuts. Amuthenu and Sheehama draw heavily on the motif of birds as a rich metaphorical basis from which to explore. Whereas Amuthenu’s birds are in flight or about to take off, we see Sheehama’s birds at rest, often depicted with their nests. Sheehama incorporates Aakwambi traditional knowledge, in which birds are a symbol of protection and nurturing. Much of Sheehama’s work is centred on the importance of preserving traditional knowledge. In various African mythologies, birds represent the highest state of perfection and form of life. As such, they are seen as agents of ‘future-pasts’, embodying the afterlife and futurity of the human soul.

Berlin Wall Fall by Tony Figueira

Moving away from broader societal dynamics to the deeply personal, Jakobina Gideon and Maria Mbereshu contemplate freedom from the perspective of their individual experiences. Mbereshu’s works Inside and Entangle reflect her desire for solitude and self-determination. She expresses herself through painstakingly produced textiles, each one created in silent meditation. Gideon’s abstracted portraits are born out of a particular experience in which she has overcome a specific challenge. "When I first listened to the song We will be Free it felt like an answered prayer from my ancestors. It was an acknowledgment of my own personal journey of figuring life out and the seemingly never ending troubles that come with it," Gideon says.

Anne Lacheiner-Kuhn’s collages of archival photographs from the construction of the Swakopmund shooting range during the apartheid era are overlaid with carefully chosen magazine images and rest on a backdrop of colourful, abstract watercolour. With these pieces Lacheiner-Kuhn contrasts the joy of contemporary freedoms with bleak images of the past. Adding to the themes of transition, change, movement and mobility, which various pieces in this exhibition touch on, the paintings of Nicky Marais remind us that there are many roads to freedom. In this case freedom is not an end product but a process of collectively navigating paths, roads and journeys towards home. In the words of the song that inspired this exhibition: "Ngenge etango ole uya otashi ka enda nawa….ngele okwashi otashi ka enda nawa (When the sun comes up everything will be fine)."

The exhibition was first presented in June 2023 in Makhanda, South Africa.

Exhibition opens on 4 November, 11:00

Venue: The Sweet Side of Thingz Café, Independence Avenue, Windhoek, Namibia

Nashilongweshipwe Mushaandja and Helen Harris

Follow the link to listen to We Will Be Free on soundcloud: www.m.soundcloud.com/tschuku-tschuku/we-willbe-free-ft-nesindano-namises.

www.startartgallery.com