Elisia Nghidishange Season

‘Ehafo’, the visual artist’s sculptural ode to joy amidst the pandemic, opens at a sophisticated StArt Art Gallery soirée at the Namibian Arts Association’s minimalist new headquarters on Robert Mugabe Avenue.

Downtown in the rustic rooms of the quaint Bellhaus Atelier & Galerie, Nghidishange shares the spotlight with artist Heidi Louw in an unlikely joint presentation titled ‘Oh, My Goodness!’ which juxtaposes Louw’s evocative, character-driven paintings with Nghidishange’s E-Tunga Studio’s modern take on traditional ceramics.

In an interview discussing ‘Modern Transforms Traditional’, Nghidishange’s combined pottery exhibition with artist Paulus Kambinda in 2019, the studio was but a fantasy.

“I hope that with all the effort I have put into this exhibition, I will be able to raise enough money to finish building my visual art studio up in the north,” Nghidishange said at the time.

Three years later, E-Tunga Studio, an arts and art training centre at Eembaxu, a village in the Ohangwena region, is a colourful geometric dream come true in Nghidishange’s hometown where the artist and a crop of assistants teach art, pottery and jewellery-making to more than 50 students, mostly children.

“I look at myself and how I came up with the idea of doing art and it was really difficult for me. First, I was working with pottery and then I realised I need some experience and skills to develop and for me to get that was really a thing,” says Nghidishange.

“I went around and when I saw somebody drawing and doing art, I would ask them where they learnt it from and people didn’t know and sometimes they didn’t want to tell you,” she says.

“I kept on searching until I came to know that there is the College of the Arts (Cota). While I have the experience and I know what I know, I don’t want these kids or these people to go through what I went through,” says the Cota alumnus (2016).

Nghidishange has gone on to exhibit in various group showcases and host four solo exhibitions, and completed her first international artists’ residency in Rapperswil, Switzerland, in 2019 before winning second prize for sculpture at the Bank Windhoek Triennial in 2020.

“I want to give the community somewhere they can go and ask about art, study art, come and get some skills where I am able to give and where I’m not then I’m able to direct them where to go.”

E-Tunga Studio’s bricks and mortar existence – as challenging as it is to finance out of her own pocket – is a full-circle moment for Nghidishange, who began her artistic exploration with the humble hunks of clay issued as a reward for helping her mother prepare the materials for her traditional pots.

Pots not unlike the ones displayed at the Bellhaus, which Nghidishange was inspired to create as a reflection of her own experience growing up far from the bright lights and flip-of-a-switch electricity, seemingly characteristic of the city.

“The candleholders,” says Nghidishange, referring to the earthy, three-point, clay candelabras that form part of the studio’s collection for ‘Oh, My Goodness!’.

“To explore that design, I immediately thought of the first time I saw a candleholder and how we used it in the village,” she says.

“We didn’t have electricity. The only thing we had was firewood and the candleholders which were not even a lot, but they were very nice because when you fire them with a match then they hold the fire,” Nghidishange says.

“Especially when it rained, it’s not always that we keep the firewood somewhere dry, so it got wet and lighting it took long so we used candleholders to hold the fire until we could light the firewood up.”

The candleholders are displayed alongside a collection of traditional vases, containers and soup bowls – all items Nghidishange hopes to develop with E-Tunga Studio’s production artists as signature offerings that can ultimately help fund the school, which she believes is vital.

“People have different feelings about art. Maybe some parents don’t understand but some do understand it. It’s only that they can’t afford it but, from the reaction of the kids, I can tell you that they are so hungry to have it,” says Nghidishange, recalling an increase in attendance after a workshop with the Namibian Arts Association.

“A lot that came to the workshop came to register. The next Saturday, the studio was full of new kids so altogether they now add up to 50-plus kids and I don’t know what to do with them,” says Nghidishange with a laugh.

“It’s really hard for me, especially because the funding is not there and I have to do everything from my own pocket but it brings joy to them. They want to be together and do things together. They want to do things with their own hands. They want to hear you saying: ‘Wow, who did this? You are such a talented kid.’ They like that.”

At the Bellhaus, Nghidishange stresses the difference between the studio and her individual artistry then on display at the Namibian Arts Association.

In a series of connected rooms, Nghidishange, whose work has spanned mixed media, ceramics, sculpture, prints and installation discussing the evolving and challenging role of women in often violent patriarchal and traditional society, the cost of wealth and recently joy, comes alive.

Welded metal, cloth and papier-mache sculptures populate the gallery bent in poses of the happiness and serenity Nghidishange wants viewers to aspire to during these difficult times.

“I just looked at what is going on around the world right now with the coronavirus and the economic downfall which came about because of the war in Ukraine and I noticed that people are so sad,” says Nghidishange.

“It’s very hard to find happiness at the moment. As an artist, most of the time we react to these things with sadness and it’s like you’re promoting what you don’t want,” she says.

“In this exhibition, I only want to bring in the things that we do when we want to be happy. Things like music, dancing and yoga. Things you do when you don’t even want to think, you just want to do them and then you laugh.”

Introducing the arts centre Nghidishange wishes she had as a child in the north at the Bellhaus and stoking ehafo (joy) at the Namibian Arts Association, Nghidishange season came with the spring and closes with all of the hope of an artist in bloom.

Follow Elisia Nghidishange and E-Tunga Studio on social media for more information.