‘Multifarious’

I’m not looking forward to any more cardboard prints. The technique has been used and abused because it’s cheap and charming and it easily attracts tourists seeking some portable Africa.

This is why most artists exhibiting in the medium keep it wistful. They draw cattle, villagescapes, rural life and traditional tribes all in the hope that someone fleeting and with funds will alight on Africa as they envision it and pay a pittance to take some home for hanging.

Lok Kandjengo is a little different. He goes through the motions in a number of pieces in ‘Multifarious’, his first solo exhibition currently on display at the National Art Gallery of Namibia (NAGN), but then he adds a little Lok to set himself apart.

Presenting his love of vintage beetles, roosters and his reverence for mothers and the traditional woman, Kandjengo makes his debut neat, nostalgic and with some stuttering social commentary.

Most meaningful is Kandjengo’s depiction of the Namibian male who he prints against the grain most commonly seen in local art. Instead of destitute, drunk or raining hell on local women, Kandjengo presents the alternative of clean cut men hard at work and engaged in the industry of fishing, business and even cooking.

His presentation of women is just as heartening and females are foregrounded as nurturers, mothers, afro goddesses and thinkers.

Though artists working within the medium of cardboard print generally opt to depict landscapes and villages, Kandjengo widens his scope to include the coast, the city and even the office in a multifarious exhibition that lacks any intentional and profound cohesion but which offers a skilled alternative to the cardboard print norm.

Kandjengo’s inclusion of the youth which includes a pierced and hooded young man gazing out of a frame and a young girl enjoying a solo picnic while listening to some music are odd but interesting additions which speak of modernity contrasted with the young man watching over a big, black pot in the village at sunset.

Another interesting element is Kandjengo’s exhibition of his cardboard prints.

Lined up near the back wall next to their paper counterparts in an exhibition of his technique, Kandjengo shows the viewer how he creates his pieces and the presentation is all the more impressive when one considers how much effort goes into designing a print and keeping it as neat and as colourful as the assorted items on display in ‘Multifarious’.

Certainly a decent debut by a skilled and steady hand, should Kandjengo want to pursue the life of a real and relevant artist rather than rotely repeating what has been done and depicted ad nauseum, the challenge remains finding something to say.

Lok Kandjengo’s ‘Multifarious’ will be on display at the National Art Gallery of Namibia until Saturday, 28 February.

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