Musukubili crochets Bukalo’s stories

Fires burn and wild lemon flowers grow near dwellings with one light bulb in Lynette Musukubili’s ‘Bukalo Stories’. Recalling everyday scenes from the Namibian village of Bukalo, the young artist makes her solo debut at The Project Room with a series of large-scale plastic tapestries celebrating the idyllic nature of life in the community.

While images of traditional Namibian life are popular in curio shops and as a theme particularly appealing to tourists, Musukubili’s renderings are set apart through abstraction and technique.

Using sourced and found plastic to crochet and embellish large works of art with abstract figures wearing chitenge, watching television, picking mutete or seated on reed mats under the shade of trees, Musukubili weaves her signature style and her village’s stories into a wealth of tapestries considering the everyday far from the city.

On a Saturday morning in Windhoek, amidst the display of her skillfully wrought textiles, Musukubili teaches her technique.

A group of women and some children gather at The Project Room to join the artist’s crochet workshop and studiously work plastic with a crochet hook as they attempt to replicate Musukubili’s method.

Results vary and delight. The Project Room founder and curator, Frieda Lühl, demonstrates how Musukubili blows warm air onto the crocheted plastic to melt and shape it into the desired forms.

Musukubili, a University of Namibia alumna, traces her artistic streak to her childhood. The artist began to take her art more seriously when she decided to study for a diploma in visual art in 2018.

“My family, we are creative people,” says Musukubili. “I think Africans in general are creative, starting from the weaving of baskets and mats. The crotchet, I learnt from my mum. She crochets a lot.”

Considering the exhibition’s prevailing theme, Musukubili sees the focus as a mode to document and honour a fading way of life.

“Pieces like ‘Under the Tree’ and ‘A Subiya Lady’s Chitenge’, those are mainly about how I grew up in the village. My holidays, upbringing and memories,” says Musukubili.

“It’s a way of telling my story. I feel like sometimes we don’t really tell our stories, especially when it comes to traditional upbringing. Everything is becoming modernised so I think it’s important to tell these stories so maybe even our kids can know about them,” Musukubili says.

“Everyone is coming to the big city and nobody really wants to be in the village anymore. But that’s where you have really good memories.”

Regarding her first solo during a break in the workshop, Musukubili smiles wide as her artworks loom large and full of promise in the background.

“I was nervous at first because it’s my first solo but it’s actually very exciting and very inspiring to see the support I’m getting,” Musukubili says.

‘Bukalo Stories’ also features two artworks concerned with gender-based violence and the slow road to justice in Namibia. Both pieces were exhibited at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair last year.

Musukubili is a recipient of the Africa Prime Initiative (API) Grant and recently exhibited artwork in ‘Unmourned Bodies’, a group show curated by Jo Rogge at Cape Town’s Association for Visual Arts (AVA) Gallery.

‘Bukalo Stories’ will be on display at The Project Room until 22 April.

– martha@namibian.com.na ; Martha Mukaiwa on Twitter and Instagram; marthamukaiwa.com