Often the Cota graduates’ first independent showing produced without the guidance of their college lecturers, the exhibition acts as an official welcome to the professional art world. Featuring established artists such as Alpheus Mvula, Peter Mwahalukange, Saima Iita, Elisia Nghidishange, Frans Nambinga and Ismael Shivute, alongside rising stars Esneya Zulu, Ryan de Wee, Nicole Schaller, Jodine Strauss, Leonard Kamanya and Wolradt Sithole, this year’s exhibition presents a diverse exploration of themes, styles and mediums, including painting, mixed media, photography, sculpture, embroidery and basket weaving. Thematically, a notion that recurs is that the wisdom of Namibia’s elders should be heeded, preserved and passed on to posterity.
Fashioning portraits through embroidery, Schaller holds up former president Hage Geingob as one such elder, as the artist embellishes his likeness with a system of roots. Schaller’s work honours Geingob’s legacy, as well as a technique passed down through her family. ‘’I am the Roots’ is a portrait of the president.
He was born under a tree, his birth came with roots. The colours red, orange and yellow portray his death but, even though his sun has set, his roots are growing in every seed he planted, in everyone that he met,” Schaller says. Explaining the significance of her chosen medium, Schaller says: “Our mother embroidered and so did our grannies and ancestors.
By using this medium, I am honouring my fallen ancestors b.
