Association for Visual Arts|Destruction, Resilience, Namaqualand

Destruction, Resilience, Namaqualand is a group exhibition featuring the work of five artists, three of whom reside in Namaqualand. The scarred landscape and remnants of mining activities in Concordia and the broader Namaqualand provide a visual narrative of the environmental cost of resource extraction. The exhibition gives voice to the voiceless who live among the pain, dreams, and fragments of past and current mining activities in Namaqualand. It juxtaposes colourful oil paintings with stark black-and-white video imagery featuring dance, poetry, and landscape visuals. The poetry speaks of the plight of Namaqua women, illuminating the past and current mining legacies.

Despite technology and the economic opportunities that mining offers to Namaqualand—providing food, shelter, and education—the brutal truth and stark reality of extractive mining are often overlooked, much like the rights of the indigenous people. Mining has left not only physical scars on the earth, but also deep mental and social scars on the people. Namaqua women, in particular, have borne the brunt of losing their culture, heritage, and loved ones - fathers, brothers, sons, and husbands - to mining accidents. They still carry the trauma in their souls and on their skin. Traditional agricultural practices, a great source of income for local farmers, are also at risk.

The indigenous people remain unseen, while their land is eyed with greed. This exhibition aims to raise awareness about the situation in Namaqualand. It urges the audience to look, listen, feel, and remember Namaqualand as it is and as it could be if the planned large-scale extractive mining continues without considering the indigenous value systems and the environmental cost.

This exhibition is designed to engage the audience in contemplation, evoke emotions, and ignite conversations about the delicate relationship between environmental degradation and the human psyche. The exhibition presents a sensory experience that combines the mediums of visual arts, poetry, and videos to create an emotionally evocative experience for the audience.

Our collaboration seeks to illuminate the devastating effects of mining on the Namaqualand landscape. Namaqualand has been experiencing mining since the 1800s, with mining companies getting rich off the land of the indigenous people without any real investment back into the communities. Namaqualand is a harsh place with a soft heart. She keeps on giving but is only left with scars in return.

Exhibition text by Ronesca Cloete.

This exhibition rus from 21 November 2024 - 21 March 2025.