ARCO Lisboa 202020 May - 14 June
Thina Dube (South Africa) | Ann Gollifer (Botswana) Tuli Mekondjo (Namibia) | Tawanda Takura (Zimbabwe)
[email protected] +27 76 294 5332
www.gunsandrain.com
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Thina Dube’s (b. 1993, South Africa) latest body of work explores the place of memory in the context of the family, and how memories manifest themselves in different ways through one’s lifetime. Items of clothing become symbols for, and ways to recall and re-enact, relationships between father and son, and between brothers. “We use memories as tools to navigate and maneuver through our lives,” says Thina, “but memories alter with time”. As such, memory is constant yet constantly in flux. “Memories manifest themselves internally as the most ‘honest’ representation from a specific time-period but, as you get older, the same memory presents itself differently in relation to new experiences, emotions and knowledge that you have gained. We are called to re-learn things that we have cast into stone.” Ideas and beliefs slowly morph into shadows and silhouettes that embody an experience or emotion. Thina has exhibited in numerous group shows in South Africa, including recently at the Stellenbosch Museum and ABSA Bank. He has also shown at AKAA Paris (2018), Latitudes Johannesburg (2019) and Cologne Fine Art & Design Fair (2019). He had a solo with Guns & Rain in 2018, and most recently a two-man show at the gallery in March 2020.
Making the paint herself with earth pigments, Ann Gollifer’s (b. 1960, Guyana) work in watercolour is part of an ongoing series titled “The Archaeology of Love”. Mythological, metamorphosed creatures – composed in the rich burnt earth colours of sienna, umber and ochre among others – speak to fecundity and the feminine, reminding us of the primordial whilst questioning what lies ahead. Stemming in part from her interest in how politics and power have defined ecosystems, the series initially explored the possibilities of human redemption in the face of climate change and global warming. But her hybrid figures take on new meaning in an age of COVID-19, where viruses are crossing inter-species, and from animals to humans. Gollifer has lived and worked in Gaborone, Botswana since 1985. A multidisciplinary artist, her own navigation of identity informs much of her work: she was born in a remote part of Guyana to British and Warao-Arawak parents, who traveled and worked widely during her childhood, and completed a Masters in History of Art at Edinburgh University (1983). She has exhibited in multiple group and solo shows across multiple countries, and her work has been collected by the British Museum, the National Museum of Botswana and the Triangle International Art Workshops amongst others. She is currently working on a long-term project about her roots in Guyana.
Exploring history and identity politics through the lens of those who lived in exile during Namibia’s independence war, Tuli Mekondjo (b. 1982, Angola/Namibia) works with layered, textured mixed media (embroidery, collage, paint, resin and mahangu millet grain - a Namibian food staple). She extends this into performance, and vice versa. Drawing on photographic archives and histories of change, loss and submission - particularly when it comes to women - she stitches between past and present. She pays homage to her forebears: in this series specifically to her uncle Ngalangobe (meaning ‘buffalo’), who died during the war, and to her grandmother who raised and buried him. “The joys and labour of her hands and her sorrows were all imprinted on the palms of her hands, they had traces of loss and of letting go.” In 2018 Mekondjo was a participant in Future Africa Visions in Time, a collaboration between Iwalewahaus Bayreuth and the Goethe-Institut Namibia. She exhibited with NJE Collective at the FNB Joburg Art Fair (2018) and Investec Cape Town Art Fair (2019), had a solo with the Project Room Windhoek ( 2019), and has shown in group exhibitions and at 1-54 London 2019 and Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2020 with Guns & Rain.
Tawanda Takura (b. 1989, Zimbabwe), who trained as a shoemaker, takes apart and expertly re-assembles old shoes which carry the traces and biographies of their owners. Sometimes combined with other found objects and texts, these new figurations carry the subtle but persistent smell of rubber and leather. Hollow, hybrid, tortured and distorted, sometimes carnivalesque, Takura’s work comments on socio-political injustice, and takes clear aim at what he sees as the extractive and hypocritical practices of charismatic churches. Takura has exhibited with Village Unhu at Cape Town Art Fair (2017, 2018) and Joburg Art Fair (2018), and undertook a residency in Jo’burg with the South African Foundation for Contemporary Art (SAFFCA) in 2019. He is represented by Guns & Rain, where his work was included in a group show at the gallery in March 2019, the Cape Town Art Fair (February 2020), and in a two-man show with Thina Dube, also at the gallery (March 2020). He lives and works in Chitungwiza, Harare.
Thina Dube Mimicking a vivid dream 2020 Acrylic, drawing ink, charcoal and soft pastel on Fabriano 70 x 50 cm $550
Thina Dube A New Born Memory 2020 Charcoal, drawing ink and acrylic paint 40 x 40 cm$350
Thina Dube Voices Carry Certainty 2020 Charcoal, drawing ink and acrylic paint 40 x 40 cm$350
Thina Dube Pinocchio never became a real boy 2020 Charcoal, drawing ink and acrylic paint 35 x 35 cm $300
Thina Dube Repetition is sometimes an absent father relearning 2020 Acrylic, soft pastel and charcoal on Fabriano 70 x 50 cm $550
Thina Dube Memories in a state of amnesia 2020 Acrylic and charcoal on Fabriano 70 x 50 cm$550
Tawanda TakuraScapegoat System, 2016Old shoes, found objects and string73 x 24 x 51cm $1300
Tawanda TakuraScapegoat System
(Detail)
Tawanda TakuraHymn for the unjust, 2018Old shoes, found objects and string37 x 32 x 44cm$1300
Tawanda TakuraHymn for the unjust, 2018Old shoes, found objects and string37 x 32 x 44cm
Ann Gollifer Ancestor Child
2019 Artist quality earth pigments in gum arabic and pencil
57 x 76 cm $650
Detail: Ancestor Child
Ann Gollifer Beloved #2 2020 Artist quality earth pigments in gum arabic and pencil 76 x 57 cm $650
Ann Gollifer My Grandmother's Face 2019 Artist quality earth pigments in gum arabic and pencil76 x 57 cm $650
Ann Gollifer Dreamer #2 2019 Watercolour on paper 76 x 57 cm $650
Tuli Mekondjo Edalo la Ngalangobe (The birth of Ngalangobe) 2020 Mixed Media on Canvas (photo transfer, collage, acrylic, millet grain and resin on canvas) 118 x 88,3 x cm USD 3000 - RESERVED
Detail: Edalo la Ngalangobe (The birth of Ngalangobe)
Tuli Mekondjo Ongalamwenyo ya Ngalangobe (Ngalangombe’s life), 2020 Mixed Media on Canvas (photo transfer, collage, acrylic, millet grain and resin on canvas) 115,3 x 81,2 x cmUSD 3000 - RESERVED
Detail: Ongalamwenyo ya Ngalangobe (Ngalangombe’s life)
Tuli Mekondjo Eso la Ngalangobe (The passing of Ngalangobe) 2020 Mixed Media on Canvas (photo transfer, collage, acrylic, millet grain and resin on canvas) 119 x 59,2 x cmUSD 2500 - RESERVED
