Visual artist and civil engineer Ndako Nghipandulwa’s two worlds collide in ‘Signs Of The Times’, a mixed media exhibition currently on display at Windhoek’s The Project Room.
Making use of road signs discarded during the process of construction, the artist embellishes unlikely canvases with scenes of the industry’s unsung workers, of Namibian children and with tongue-in-cheek critiques of the powers that be rendered with nails and string.
“I work in the construction industry, on roads. Sometimes, we will remove road signs to put up new ones and the old road signs are going to be discarded. So, I decided to start collecting them to do some artwork on them, instead of throwing them away,” says Nghipandulwa.
Depicting children at play with a toy car, construction boots and a hard hat in his ‘Winding Road’ series, the artist reflects on growing up and what we cannot know about the road ahead.
“When we are young, we don’t know life. Okay, I still don’t know life but I know a little better,” says Nghipandulwa. “But when you’re young, you’re so naïve. You think everything is perfect. You don’t know about the challenges and the winding road that’s coming.”
Although life is unpredictable, the artist looks to the nation’s elders in a piece titled ‘We Could Never Fly, Maybe You Can’ which imagines parental figures launching a child in a billowing cape skyward.
“In this piece, parents are supporting the child, they’re trying to launch the child,” says Nghipandulwa. “I think that’s the point, we try to do better for our children than what our parents did for us.”
Children also soar in Nghipandulwa’s ‘The Moon Shooter’ series, in which a boy in an astronaut’s helmet ignites a directional arrow rocket ship and blasts off, bound for the moon.
Each piece in the four-part series was bought by different collectors from Europe and South Africa.
“Maybe one day, they’ll find each other again,” says Nghipandulwa.
The artist’s sense of whimsy is evident throughout the exhibition but perhaps most notably in ‘The Cow Jumped Over the Humps’. The artwork depicts a cow in a reflective vest, jumping over a speed hump.
“It’s just a little comment on what has been happening these days regarding our roads and our transport minister,” says Nghipandulwa. “He suggested that animals should wear the vests. And the questionable decisions of the speed humps on the Western Bypass. So, I have this cow jumping over his humps here.”
The artist’s social commentary is more serious in ‘Residents Only’ in which a woman cooks in front of a corrugated iron house marked for removal as her child looks on within an informal settlement.
“Working with people in construction, I often visit their homes and most of them live in informal settlements. The yellow signs are temporary signs. We only use them during construction,” says Nghipandulwa.
“‘Residents Only’ is on a temporary sign because they live in temporary structures. Windhoek is kind of ‘for residents only’ because if you don’t have money to afford the expensive land, it’s like you’re not wanted.”
Employing his signature nail and string technique in a solo exhibition that is eco-friendly, quirky and socially conscious, Nghipandulwa’s latest solo sees the artist extending the limits of the traditional frame with humour, heart and style.
‘Signs Of The Times’ will be on display at The Project Room until 19 September. The full catalogue can be viewed at theprojectroom.com.na
