‘Tulipamwe Now and Then’

Somewhere in the Hardap region, 26 artists from six countries have gathered to create and exchange.

Following in the footsteps of hundreds of local and international visual artists before them, the artists who recently attended this year’s two-week long Tulipamwe International Artists’ Workshop are new threads in a tapestry woven over the last 24 years.

In ‘Tulipamwe Now and Then’, a retrospective exhibition currently on display at the National Art Gallery of Namibia, patrons can catch a glimpse of this tapestry’s content and colour.

A diverse, vivid, largely abstract throwback featuring 47 artworks dating from the inaugural event in 1994 until present day, the exhibition dusts off pieces from the Tulipawme Permanent Collection displayed alongside a handful of contemporary work.

“It has been 24 years since the first Tulipamwe and the spirit of togetherness continues,” says NAGN communications and marketing officer Annapaula Vakamuena. “Tulipamwe International Artists Workshop is a programme under the National Art Gallery of Namibia, and is a vital component in the development of Namibian artists, creating collaborative efforts among artists, and contributes to the development of Namibia’s creative economy.”

Featuring the ominous black strokes of Torsten Schluster’s ‘Ghost Ship’ created at the very first workshop in 1994 and Nabulime Lilian’s elegant woman figure with eyes closed in a state of grace or prayer sculpted in 1998, the exhibition showcases historical work that is attributed and dated amidst a considerable collection whose origins are lost.

Nameless, untitled and undated, the details of some of the most striking pieces – minute planes soaring above and amidst a field of vibrant wild flowers, a headless, legless human figure with tribal marks or tattoos etched into smooth brown skin, a wooden woman holding her child close – are left entirely to the imagination.

Citing a lack of or the loss of records over the years, Vakamuena remarked that this year’s exhibition will be carefully labelled and catalogued so as not to lose vital art and artists’ information.

Output from this year’s retreat will also be viewed immediately after the workshop in ‘Tulipamwe 2018′, an exhibition of the 2018 participants’ work in wood, stone, paint, paper, metal and clay with an emphasis on collaboration.

“The exhibition will showcase the diversity of work created at the workshop as well as experimental and works in progress,” says Vakamuena. “The workshop included many established as well as emerging southern African artists and the exhibition will reflect this range.”

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