BRIGHT portraits of women, mothers and children are contrasted with the dark reality of the often gendered social ills that may affect them in Tity Kalala Tshilumba’s ‘The Source’.
Now on show at the National Art Gallery of Namibia (NAGN), the exhibition presents oil paintings such as ‘Free Mommy’, ‘Running Out of Time’ and ‘Maximum Protections’, which refer to the sexual and gender-based violence and oppression many women and children are subjected to in domestic settings, most often at the hands of men.
“’The Source’ is about what is happening in our society. This exhibition is all about gender-based violence. I tried to put women and children at the centre, as well as men sometimes,” says Tshilumba.
The artist’s paintings of men depict present fathers embracing and washing the feet of their children as the antithesis to the very real issue of absent fathers and countless perpetrators of sexual and gender-based violence commonly represented in the media.
“There are good men in our society. The bad are too many,” says Tshilumba, whose fourth solo exhibition is also a celebration of women as the source of life, the heart of the home and guardians of tradition in images such as ‘Joy of my Womb’, ‘Soul
Buddies’, ‘Culture Elegance’ and the titular and moonlit ‘The Source’.
“When you mix good apples with bad apples, everything becomes bad,” says Tshilumba of the men poisoning society’s well.
“Why are we abusing our women, why are we killing our children, why are we making our children do labour at an early age, why do women have to do everything that men also have to do?
“People have to stand. Women have to stand up and must come out and not protect the culprit or people who are doing wrong to them. ‘The Source’ is about women. Women are people who bring joy in the house, together with the child.”
Showcasing women in traditional dress, nurturing daughters and bearing the next generation, as well as children practising self-love while doing their utmost to keep smiling, Tshilumba’s vivid and socially conscious offering speaks of the resilience
and enduring hope of both woman and children while calling for men to introspect and do better as protectors, caregivers and members of society.
‘The Source’ will be on display at the NAGN until 5 November. ‘Waking up the City’, an Otjomuise Live Arts Festival mural by Tshilumba and sponsored by Neo Paints, is also on display on the NAGN’s wall on Robert Mugabe Avenue.
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