Kululako elende loye, ove omuKriste paife (Shave off your Elende hairstyle, You Are a Christian Now)
Tuli Mekondjo
About the SessionHair Matters: A Selection of Works from the Georgina Jaffee Collection is a tightly focused, thematic auction that initiates a critical dialogue on the profound significance of hair in contemporary artistic practice. Featuring a cohort of accomplished contemporary artists, primarily those working from the African continent or within the global African diaspora, this selection of works is guided by a singular conceptual mandate: every work turns to hair as a powerful nexus, serving as medium, metaphor, or focal point of exploration.
Hair Matters illuminates the diverse interpretations and artistic vocabularies through which hair shapes identity, memory, and meaning across cultures, nations, and histories. Featuring artists such as Léonce Raphaël Agbodjélou (Benin), Ifeoma U. Anyaeji (Nigeria), Sethembile Msezane (South Africa), and Hank Willis Thomas (United States), the auction examines the aesthetics, politics, and sociology of hair, with particular emphasis on African perspectives and the connective threads that link the continent and its global diasporas.
Curatorial Voices: Natasha Becker, Jared Leite, Vida Madighi-Oghu and Sihle Motsa.
About this Item
signed and dated
Provenance
1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Guns & Rain, London, 2020.
The Georgina Jaffee Hair Matters Collection.
Exhibited
1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, London, Guns & Rain Booth: Oikalunga, 8 to 10 October 2020.
Notes
Selected by Curatorial Voice: Natasha Becker.
“In this work, Mekondjo attempts to re-remember what pre-colonial life might have been like in a typical village in OuKwanyama, northern Namibia, before the arrival of Finnish missionaries in 1870. The themes of change, resistance and erasure – in relation to both cultural practices and religion – take centre stage, as the rise of Christianity deeply reshapes the contours of Aawambo life. From naming practices and indigenous hairstyles to sacrificial rites, Mekondjo conjures history back to life with an abundant demonstration of cultural symbols...In this work she references the shaving of hair in this era as the Aawambo adopt Christian beliefs.”—Guns & Rain
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