African Paradox

The first thing you’ll notice about Joseph Madisia’s ‘African Paradox Experienced in Namibia’ is the man who pays you no attention.

Dressed in a dark suit, a money bag for a face and chewing languidly on a smiley, the fat cat stares blindly out at the Franco-Namibian Cultural Centre gallery while Madisia’s collection of monochrome metaphors absorb and arrest.

Compromised of 11 linocut prints and poems presented in honour of the late John Muafengejo and South African artist and poet Peter Clarke, ‘African Paradox’ is a parabolic presentation of the relatively linear nature of words held in stark contrast to the intricate jumble of images Madisia expertly crams into a frame.

Filled with striking black and white imagery offering surprising and allegorical spins on politics, money, greed, gender equality, land matters, cash cows, monuments, politics, vision 2030 and the duality of the African life path, Madisia’s exhibition is both cerebral and skillfully wrought in an offering that champions art as a political and social tool while being equally concerned with aesthetics.

In this endeavour, Madisia casts his consummate artistic ability over Namibia’s various contradictions underscored by the evocation of board games and the biblical.

In ‘The Tower of Babel’, Madisia depicts Windhoek’s Independence Memorial Museum jutting high into the sky, topped with a Swapo fist clenched in victory as vultures look down at the city below.

Though the imagery seems triumphant, the sinister inclusion of the vultures and the accompanying text hint at a paradox which is expounded upon in Madisia’s poetry.

“People’s power is the history of our struggle… Oh! Independence Memorial Museum in gold, how many hungry pensioners close to death is growing old.” Cleverly acknowledging a triumph of the past cast in gold in the present that looks down on starving pensioners, Madisia considers the irony of victory breeding poverty.

This type of high that also includes a low is also the theme in ‘The Snakes and Ladders Chessboard’ in which Madisia says “just when you think you are going up in life, you bump into a jealous snake to get a downwards bite”.

A little more macabre is Madisia’s mass grave in ‘Business Icon’s Hall of Fame’. In this a sign reads “we shall always remember you” above a grave teeming with men and women with money bags for heads. Ruled by money and with money on their mind these figures are accompanied by the words “enjoying the money in the land of the brave but who will ever carry money with to their graves.”

Advocating for gender equality, considering the African existence straddling our original values and the colonial ones that now seem the norm and ever alluding to the evil inherent in money, in and amongst Madisia’s signature linocuts, the artist presents ‘Dollar Trap for Greed’ in which he lines a large metal mouse trap with a N$200 note while contemplating the intersection of faith, hope and charity in three installations of the Bible, an open coffin and a Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF) money bag all set under glass.

Though each of the 11 linocuts is vastly different, one thing that is always of note is Madisia’s hands.

Stuck in his own ears in ‘Hear No Evil Politics’, clenched in triumph in ‘Tower of Babel’, suited, issuing meagre coins to the skinny and traditionally clad in ‘Money Goes Around, Money Comes Around’, and clinging in ‘Sacred Land Matters’, Madisia’s hands are telling in that they are never giving, never helping, never relieving and just like the man who pays you no attention.

The suited, silent man on screen who chews on his smiley as you peruse the exhibition. Indifferent. Apathetic. Sighing, gulping and sipping on red wine as Madisia’s hands cling and clutch.

Though much of the poetry could do with a keen editor’s eye, for the most part, the meeting of poetry and prints is inspired.

Powerful, political and elegantly impenitent, ‘African Paradox’ is a must see as a triumph of technique and a lesson in art beyond escapism.

-martha@namibian.com.na;

@marth__vader on Twitter and Instagram