Ilovu presents ‘Onlooker’

Visual artist and curator Actofel Ilovu is a passionate patron of the arts. A familiar figure from art openings with a sometimes-hidden hand in nurturing and assisting artists to stage their own exhibitions, Ilovu’s individual artistic practice and third solo may come as a surprise, if not an exciting return to form.

In ‘Onlooker’, an exhibition of smoke on paper and linocut prints currently on display at The Project Room, Ilovu draws inspiration from the humble marula nut.

In Ilovu’s renderings, the face-like, hard-shelled nuts become the peering onlooker of the exhibition’s title as the recurring character at once regards and features in frames depicting issues of social, economic and societal import.

Featuring fumage style paintings such as ‘Don’t Go Blind’, ‘Onlookers’ and ‘Eyes on women’s movements’ as well as the monochrome prints ‘I see Africa as one again’, ‘See!!!’ and ‘We are Namibian too (Paula & Maya)’, Ilovu presents a striking showcase of both techniques with an eye on current affairs and Namibia’s social justice movements.

“There are lots of things happening in Namibia that we don’t want to happen but I don’t have the power to change them,” says Ilovu.

“Politicians have those powers. We have big eyes to look at things, but it seems like we don’t see anything that results in us doing anything about it.”

‘Onlooker’ is a sea of eyes and an invitation to see our way to action. While Ilovu is the original onlooker, the artist also suggests that we all begin to see more clearly.

“The ‘Onlooker’ can be me, you or anyone who wants the system changed,” Ilovu says.

Advocating for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, and other (LGBTQI+) Namibians’ right to establish a family in a piece referencing the struggles of Phillip Lühl and Guillermo Delgado, and also noting the rise of local women’s movements, Ilovu’s work delves into the political and eyes the government in an image titled ‘I see three Presidents’.

“I want to advocate for women to feel free and safe in what they want to go out in,” says Ilovu. “We should give our women freedom to express themselves through their dressing without the fear of being raped when they go around in their comfortable clothes,” the artist says. “In most African cultures, people used to dress in animal skins that just cover certain parts of the body. But they weren’t raped and sexually harassed.”

Though ‘Onlooker’ deals with some heavier themes and the observant watcher is meant to unsettle, Ilovu also includes a celebration of the marula tree and its bounty.

In ‘Gongola Time’ and ‘Ngongola Time’, the artist captures the excitement of eating marula fruit in one’s house and of enjoying the marula festival in the village.

Equally the onlooker and the marula nut Namibian living in a society plagued by youth unemployment, sexual and gender-based violence and poverty, Ilovu presents a stylised and attentive reflection of where Namibia is today, with the smallest glimmer of hope for tomorrow.
‘Onlooker’, presented in collaboration with StArt Art Gallery, will be ondisplay at The Project Room until 20 May.

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