Camel art studio comes to life

THE old Camel Stables of the National Museum of Namibia were brought back to live again by four artists who are now working in the Camel Stables Art Studio.
The stables stood empty and unused for the last few years.

Stephan Eins, Lina-Maria Shikongo, Foibe Amundaba and Alpheus Mvula are all artists in their own right in different art forms and mediums, but they needed to find a suitable studio to work from. Eins is a furniture and lamp designer and Amundaba a painter who also creates crafts and especially now Christmas cards and decorations. Shikongo is a fashion and accessories designer and Mvula a stone sculptor and lino cut artist. Most of their art is functional art like clothing, furniture, handbags, earrings, art which you can wear or use. They sell their art at various markets and at the craft center but this is not the ideal place.”In the long therm we would like to get our own shop from where we could sell our products as we design and create functional products and not so much crafts,” said Eins. They want to show other artists that you can make a living from your art, provided you work hard. Camel Stables Art Studio does not only produce functional art they are also very aware of recycling and very involved in the community.Shikongo likes to use recycled materials in her jewelry design.”I like to experiment and looked at some prosopis trees which were cut down and decided to make earrings from the wood which are very popular,” she said.Eins gets his wood from trees that were cut down in peoples yards. He collects all his iron from scrap yards or in the veld while going scrap hunting. Shikongo recently made a dress out of plastic, “It is not very practical but I want to show people that they can, and must recycle, and that with a little imagination you can find many ways to use recyclable materials and make something wonderful out of them.” They recently put up a shade structure made completely out of recyclable material, at a Kindergarten in Katutura.Camel Stable Art Studio also hosts regular workshops on different subjects like sculpture or batik.”We need to constantly expand our creative thinking, attend and give different workshops,” said Shikongo.The four have big dreams and hope that in the future other functional artists would join them.”We can make it and make a living from functional art products, we do not sit around and expect people to give us hand-outs, we can make a living through hard word,” said Shikongo.