STUDENT : PATRICIA MTAMBALIKA

STUDENT NO : 200529536

COURSE : CURATION AND CRITIQUE

LECTURER : M.T FORSTER

ASSIGNMENT : EVALUATION OF A RECENT EXHIBITION IN

WINDHOEK – NAMIBIA

DUE : JUNE 2010

1.INTRODUCTION

Namibia is acountry where different local and international artists exhibit their
artworks. These artists show their artworks at the major galleries like National Art
Gallery, studio 77 and Franco Namibian Centre. It was at Franco Namibian Centre where
students studying Curation and Critique went to see an exhibition by a local artist
Joseph Madisia in March, 2010. This exhibition will be discussed in this essay in the
following order: The artist’s background, the art presented, an evaluation of the
curation of the exhibition with regard to central prerequisites identified as essential
for proffessional curation, the suggestions for changes to the exhibition and finally the
conclusion.

The artist, Joseph Madisia is a well known Namibian artist who had his retrospective
exhibition at the Franco Namibian Cultural Centre between 1st and 31st of March 2010.
The exhibition was titled “ Quarter of a century Black and White Print Making”

2.BACKGROUND TO THE ARTIST

Joseph Madisia is a Namibian artist born in Luderitz in 1954. Madisia left Luderitz and
trained as a carpenter in 1971. He worked in the fishing industry between 1973 and
1975 and the same year he also went and worked at Rossing Uranium mine near
Swakopmund until 1983. It was while he worked in the mines that he developed an
interest in art. A local artist named Koos Van Ellinckhizen is attributed to have helped
Madisia to become an artist Madisia said “ Ellinkhuizen painted in water colors but John
Muafangejo a well known Namibian artist used lino cut and cardboard prints in his works
and he inspired me to use card board print and lino prints in my work.” {June 8 2010.} It
was in the 1980’s that Madisia started pursuing his interest in art and this led to his
first exhibition in Windhoek in 1982.

2.1 His education and achievements

Madisia pursued his formal education in art beginning with his studies in Visual Arts at
the Academy for Tertiary Education between 1983 and 1986. He also worked as Art
Workshop Coordinator at The Franco Namibian Center between 1991 and 1993. In 1999,
Madisia graduated from the University Of Namibia with a Bachelor of Arts degree. His
works have been exhibited in Germany , Brazil, Norway and Switzerland to mention a
few. As a teacher, Madisia has been credited with a lot of accolades for his role in
“helping impact the young black artists of Namibia and was nick named ‘midwife’ in
relation to his involvement in the creation of the explosion of the new breed on the
Namibian artistic scene” as New Era quotes the Windhoek Advertiser of August 8,
1992. He is regarded as one of the founder members of Tulipamwe International
Artists Workshop. A local trust that helps bring artists from different countries to
share knowledge and skill in in a creative environment. His patriotism as a Namibian has
been shown through his contributions like the designing of the Prime Ministers mural,
design of the Namibian flag,the design of the Namibian Court Of Arms and the design
of the Omugulugwoombashe Memorial Stone in Outapi to mention a few. He has been
acting Director of The John Muafangejo Art Centre until January 2002. He is currently
the director of the National Art Gallery of Namibia.

2.2 His style

His style is based on line. His linear drawing defines his masterpieces and can be seen
through the way it is expressed. With line, he makes neat contours carefully drawn to
make no room for error and produces these shapes that in the end are almost real.
Although Madisia got inspired to work in lino cut and cardboard print by Muafangejo,
one can see the impact formal education has had on his works in compariason to
Muafangejo. Madisia’s works are neat, well thought of and mature in nature while
Muafangejo’s are playful withpoorly constructed english. Madisia’s works show how
education can unlock a persons artistic side. Madisias works are done in surrealism in a
realistic format and look well presented, well thought of before and during production.

3. THE ARTWORKS FOR THIS EXHIBITION

His approach to the Retrospective exhibition was holistic. He included in this exhibition
card board prints and lino cut and he showed the works depicting figurative , realistic
scenes of Namibia’s social conditions and also on works out side of the social conditions.
In his works for this particular exhibition, he expresses optimsm, shows his connection
to his roots, his career progression, his patriotism and shows the burning issues of the
day. He for instance includes the work “ Namibian citizens, 1989 lino cut” where he
includes the portaraits of all races found in Namibia. This indicates that he looks at
Namibia as a nation of different races. In my interpretation he ragards nationality as
paramount to race.

He also included his own life and career where by there were artworks depicting the
life at Sea while working in the fishing industry for instance, the Work titled “ Atlantic
Sea Nymph” a figure that is half human and half fish. In this work he also shows the
beliefs and his connection to the spirit world just like in the trance dance.

Under his convictions, Madisia produces works like those concerning burning issues in
contemporary society like gender equality where he produced an artwork and included a
written text “ all men and all women are equal”. In this work, Madisia addresses the
social imbalances that occur in our society just because people are of a different
gender.
3.1 His iconography

Madisia is well known for his iconography. This iconography was visible in most of the
works and this incudes:

Hides of spring bok, this is symbolical of the culture of the people in the Southern part
of Namibia where he grew up. There, domesticated and wild animals play an important
role in the survival of human beings such as provision of food, clothing and income . He
therefore goes back to his roots and includes what is important in village settings.

The drums are associated with Africa. The drums are used in almost every society in
Africa and Madisia being African celebrates the drums in his artworks. In the work
trance dance and African rythms drums are very prominently featured.

The well known traditional dress like the Oshiwambo dress is used in addition to
bangles, ornaments and eggshell beads to also celebrate Africanness. This also shows
how Madisia relates to his roots despite living in the city.

Madisia also uses milk to symbolise nurturing. In using the calabash which often appears
as woman’s breast, Madisia uses it as a container of culture symbolising the nurturing of
the African heritage.

The a basket woven structure of is used to symbolise the interconnectiveness and

interdependence of the different sectors of the Namibian society.

4. EVALUATION OF THE CURATION OF THE EXHIBITION

Curation of an exhibition is crucial in this contemporary society. According to Rugg. J.,

quotes Liz Wells who said, “research is important to curatotion because it and involves
rigorous contextualisation of the work and the ‘theatre’ of exhibition if it has to invoke
emotions of the viewer” {p.8} Madisia co- curated the exhibition with Gayle who also
works at the Frano Namibian Cultural Center and both had the knowlegde of the
exhibition hall and other exhibitions taking place around town. When asked about why
he used black and white he said “the use of black and white was done to complement and
honour the exhibition of John Muafangejo whose work was also on display at the
National Art Gallery in black and white”.

4.1 The single line hung

As Serota. N., said “... the single line hung in museums became conventional in display in
the public art galleries in the 1980.” {p.7} It was interesting to see that this is the
approach that the curators followed in the curation of Madisias exhibition. This
resulted in the whole curation being aesthetically pleasing. This also allowed the viewers
eye to move across the space.

4.2 General display

There was a continuation of the works whereby his iconography and its symbolism kept
on appearing despite the grouping of the works. Works depicting his life at sea, general
social conditions and those of Katutura scenes were grouped together. This was partly
in relation to Nicholas Serota’s approach where he believed works should be grouped
into their dynamic relation ship. Serota. N., {P.8} Serota also doesnot believe in
accomodation of other art like documentation eg video which was also absent in
Madisia’s exhibition.

4.3 Use of light and color

They artworks were done in black ink on white paper which was then mounted on white
card. The room was dark colored in terms of both the walls and the floor. There was
sufficient natural and artificial light which shone through the room making the whole
exhibition look pleasant. The contrast between black and white drammatised the whole
exhibition and made the viewer feel calm and at peace in space. This is what Serota and
Carol Duncan would like to see viewers experience. A creation of a mood associated with
temples / chapels. Despite the absence of other colors there was tension created by
the contrast of black and white and between the artworks. Madisia said the color of
the exhibition room also cotributed to his choice of using black and white colors for his
artworks.

4.4 Engagement of the viewer

Madisia’s exhibition engaged the viewer in that there were labels included for each
artwork. When one reads the label and looks at the artwork, it was very easy to
understand. The general exhibition therefore concurs with Lavine, S. D., who says “
good exhibitions are often conceptually simple....the more complex the verbal language
is, the less understandable the exhibition becomes.” {P.181}. The confusion came about
because the dates indicated were for the original prints and not for the reprints. The
audience was however able to know what occupied the mind of the artists at such
particular time. Guriran also believed in the viewer as an active agent who should be
allowed to participate, Madisia to an extent allowed for this in his curation by including
labels and not giving the viewer a chance to guess the title.
4.5 Promotion

There was good marketing done in that there was a press release followed by reviews in
the press informing the people about the exhibition. The choice of the exhibition dates
to coincide withe the Independence celebration was also very important.

5. What should have been included

There was not enough contextualisation to empower the viewer, there should have been
a cardboard or lino cut included in the exhibition so that the viewers could experience
the art of print making. I also feel like other forms of Madisia’s artworks should have
been included. Madisia is also known to paint on canvas. This would have added relative
weight to the whole exhibition. In the Tulipamwe exhibition at UNAM art gallery from 3
June 2010, the viewer is empowered to engage in the whole exhibition through writing
about their feelings on the different artworks presented in the note books provided.
The viewer also engages in interactive participation through the watching of the video
that allows them to see the work in progress at Tulipamwe workshops. If in this
exhibition curators gave the viewers that chance, it would have made the whole
exhibition more interactive.

The positioning of the exhibition text and size was not welcoming. It should have been
positioned at an open area in good font so that viewers can engage and feel welcome.
The notion of the museum being for the elite would have been easily quashed.

The portarait of Madisia was there but the size could have been bigger. This helps the
viewer know without question who is the artist.

Madisia is well known for his cardboard prints. The number of cardboard prints in this
exhibition were not presentable of the artists style. The number of lino cut prints
outnumbered those of the card board prints.

6. CONCLUSION

This was a successful exhibition in that the viewer was allowed to interact with the few
information given. The natural and artificial light in the room beaming on the black and
white frames all over the room added to the pleasantness of the whole exhibition. His
inclusion of the works depicting Namibian life was both educative to the foreign guests
and very melancholic to the people who experienced and are still experiencing the
depicted situations. There was also an exhibition text and artists statement included to
give the viewer general information about the artist and his art works. Style of hanging
led to the success of the exhibition. All in all it was a successful exhibition in which
modern ways of curating in museums were taken into account.
REFERENCES

Serota N. 1988,Experience or Interpretation The Dilemma Of Museums Of Modern

Art Thames and Hudson London.

Duncan . C., Civilising Rituals nside public Art Galleries. Routledge 1995 New York

Rugg. J., & Sedgwick. M., ed Issues in curating Contemporary Art and Perfomance
Intellect, 2007 Bristol.

Interview with Joseph Madisia 08-06-2010

“New Era” 26-02-2010

Class notes by Forster T. M