VAC presents ‘Custodians’, all-star end of year fundraiser

By Andrew Mulenga

“The Custodians”, an exhibition of paintings and sculptures by top contemporary Zambian artists opens at 17:30 hrs on Friday 20^th November at the Henry Tayali Gallery in the Lusaka Show Grounds.

The Visual Arts Council of Zambia (VAC) will be presenting a show that comprises a body of work staging multiple themes while cultivating an explicit relationship between the present and the past by pitting some of Zambia’s greats, living and deceased alongside works by a younger crop of artists with great promise, as part of a fundraiser. As such, VAC will be charging a K20 entrance fee for the opening event, which of course will be characterised by an open wine and snack bar.

Custodians, a group exhibition opens on
Friday this week. Photo by Andrew Mulenga

The exhibition marks an important and new step in proving that as a space, the Henry Tayali Gallery and visual arts centre plays a fundamental role in offering testimony that against many odds, the country indeed has a flourishing visual arts scene and committed artists who are worthy of support, a point that is critical as definite political will is at long last on the horizon, vis-à-vis support for the arts from government – if of course President Edgar Lungu’s recent remarks and visit to the gallery are anything to go by.

Just a year ago, VAC hosted a similar group exhibition entitled “Visibility (can you see us?)”, well that show’s title was self-explanatory, it was a call by the gallery co-ordinators beckoning private and public stakeholders in the visual arts, a call for support particularly of a financial nature, which has been dwindling over the years since the main foreign donor agencies and their government began tightened their budgets and shifting their aide focus for various reasons. The Custodians, nevertheless, is an equally important show, assuming now that VAC’s visibility has somewhat improved, it is really time for its members, paid-up and non-paid up to put their house in order.

Over the years, the institution has been blemished by infantile bickering and finger pointing with accusations of individuals feeling they “own” VAC more than the next member as well as claims favouritism and opposing camps within the ranks, all this must come to an end if the council is to move forward as a unified body.

Flashback - the main exhibition space in
the Henry Tayali Gallery and
visual art centre, Lusaka © VAC

When a call out is sent to all artists to pay up membership, they must all comply, when they are all called to an Annual General Meeting, they should all do likewise and attend. Someone wise once said strength is in numbers, can you imagine if every single Zambian visual artist were up to date on their annual subscriptions, the funds would definitely go a long way in paying the gallery staff as well as the building rentals to the show society for VAC, Lusaka. Currently VAC demands a small amount of K50 for individuals and K150 for institutional membership, these figures are almost a joke to any practicing Zambian artist regardless of the hard economic times, if anything VAC should consider increasing the fee to K150 for individuals and K1, 500 for institutions, if you do the maths there will be no more delayed salaries for art centre staff in Livingstone, Lusaka, Kitwe or Chipata. Also, if all the visual artists get actively involved in the council, they are bound to have a stronger voice and will be heard whenever they call for something. As for art students from the Zambia Open University and Evelyn Hone College, these institutions should make it mandatory for each and every student to be a paid up member – at a special students rate of course – school pupils and art clubs should be encouraged to join and told of the benefits of being affiliated to a professional body of artists.

On the other hand, returning to The Custodians it is gratifying to note that among the featured artists, the gallery co-ordinators decided to include the late Martin Phiri. Phiri is arguably the most unacknowledged contemporary Zambian artist of his generation, which is quite regrettable considering the artist’s legacy. Truth be told, without him there would be no VAC at all, it is Phiri whom as a young lecturer at Evelyn Hone College in his late twenties elbowed his way into a high-profile cultural policy meeting chaired by Lazarus Tembo, the late singer who was also a government minister overseeing Labour and Social services at the time. Phiri, who had just returned from China where he had obtained a BA Fine Art at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing and was obviously inspired by the students uprising of that country, argued that the cultural policy that was being created lacked visual arts representation and demanded he be given a month to organize artists and create a nationwide, professional body. Along with three of his students, William Miko, Harry Kamboni and Agnes Buya Yombwe, they were able to pull off this immense task and mobilize close to 100 artists from all over the country to gather for a meeting at the Evelyn Hone College, this was the birth of VAC, mind you this was way before the e-mail and cell phone era. This is not to say Phiri has been entirely forgotten, of course the VAC offices in Chipata are named in his honour, but the man at least deserves a retrospective show to bring awareness to his contribution and work.

In any case, The Custodians is set to be an entertaining event, other artists featured in the show are Zenzele Chulu, Lombe Nsama, Adam Mwansa, Agnes Buya Yombwe, Chansa Chishimba, Charles Chambata, Danny Lwando, David Chibwe, Eddie Mumba, Mwamba Mulangala, Stary Mwaba, Sydney Siansangu, Nukwase Tembo, Patrick Mweemba, Patrick Mumba, Poto Kabwe Flinto Chandia, Gladys Kalichini, Lawrnence Yombwe, William Miko, Lutanda Mwamba, Raphael Mutulikwa, Vincentio Phiri, Mulenga Mulenga and Geoffrey Phiri. 

What does the ‘Afrofuturism’ spirit mean to Zambia today?

By Andrew Mulenga

Athletes are always said to fly their nations flags high during the course of their endeavours, certainly the Zambia National Football team did so when they won the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations, the Zambia National Polocrosse team did so when they reached the world cup finals this year, sprinter Sydney Siame did it with a good performance at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics in Beijing, and the Phiri’s Esther and Catherine – no relation – do it whenever they face an international opponent in the boxing ring.

Tribute to the Afronauts 2015, mixed media,
251 x 192 cm by Stary Mwaba

With due respect to these outstanding flag-carriers, it can be argued that only an artist has the ability to fly the national flag higher than them, well figuratively, an artist has the ability to place the flag on the moon or mars and this is exactly what Lusaka-based artist Stary Mwaba did -- while he was in attending a one-year residency through a grant by KfW Stiftung for the International Studio Programme at Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin -- by creating work inspired by the late Zambian visionary Mukuka Nkoloso.

Berlin art critic and author, Kito Nedo gave a stimulating account of Mwaba’s work from his solo exhibition Life on Mars that was published in the high-profile contemporary German art magazine BE shortly after the exhibition in early 2015.  Life on Mars was the culmination of a series of exhibitions that started with a show at the Lusaka National Museum in 2014.

“With respect to the space race, a definite ‘grand narrative’ has become dominant in the west: in the 1950s and 60s, the Soviet Union and the USA competed to achieve the first manned flight into space. On 12^th April 1961 the Russians won a successful propaganda victory at this stage with Yuri Gagarin. But that – as the assemblage-images and installations by Zambian artist Stary Mwaba indicate -- is only part of the story,” writes Nedo

“It is largely unknown in the west that Zambia was also part of the space race in the 60s: close to the capital city Lusaka there was a very ambitious space flight program led by Mukuka Nkoloso, a translator, teacher and independence fighter honoured today as the father of Afrofuturism.”

The Spaceship (D KALO-15), 2015
mixed media installation 235 x 130 x 120
cm by Stary Mwaba

Now, in case you were wondering, “Afrofuturism” is a term generally accepted to embody a literary and cultural aesthetic that gained ground among the African American creative community through the 1990s particularly made popular by artistes such as the jazz musician Sun Ra. In recent times popular groups like the Black Eyed Peas have been known to dabble in Afrofutristic nuances and imagery in their dress as well as music videos which often combine elements of science fiction with an “African” twist. Zimbabwean-born writer Panashe Chigumadzi describes Afrofuturism as “a cultural movement that increasingly reflects the current mood of optimism about the political and economic future of the continent. This, as I’ve discovered, is an important genre.” Anyway, on the African continent however, a good number of visual artists’ work has been labelled afrofutristic such as Wangechi Mutu and Cyrus Kabiru of Kenya, South African comic-book artist Loyiso Mkize and Zimbabwe-born Gerald Machona whose work Ndiri Afronaut (I am an afronaut) gained him international acclaim. But in any case it is interesting that the beginning of this movement should be attributed to Zambia and Nkoloso in particular as Nedo points out, after all Nkoloso did coin the term Afronaut which again Cristina de Middel a photographer and artist from the United Kingdom borrowed for her 2012 book The Afronauts, described as “a photobook about the short-lived Zambian space program in Southern Africa.”

Nevertheless, there is perhaps no such thing is claiming sole ownership of a philosophy but to a large extent Mwaba’s recent show was an attempt to reclaim not only Zambia’s positions in the space race but also the nation’s slot in inspiring contemporary African thought. That said, Nedo points out that archival images from the Zambia National Academy of Science, Space Research and Philosophy, which Nkoloso founded on a farm outside Lusaka, hugely inspired the Mwaba’s work, and he also asks a pertinent question of what Afrofuturism means to Zambia today.

“What does that past Afrofuturism spirit of departure mean to Zambia today? He is also interested in the aesthetic-political content of the Nkoloso programme: its assertion of African space travel conjures a powerful counter-image to the dominant colonial narrative, which sees Africa merely as a backward, chaotic, low-tech part of the world”, observes Nedo.

Title unknown, 2014 mixed media on canvas
170 x 129 cm by Stary Mwaba

“It is easy to view the academy as some kind of joke. But in the country that had declared its independence from the United Kingdom on 24^th October 1964, such utopian efforts were part of post-colonial euphoria. The cradle of the Afronaut movement lay in Lusaka: today pioneering figures like Nkoloso still electrify artists with an Afrofuturism tendency”.

Zambia fell out of the space race after Neil Armstrong landed on the moon on 21 July 1969, this thwarted Nkolosos plan to get the 17-year-old Afronoaut Matha Mwambwa and two cats on the moon before the Russians and the Americans.

Still, a closer look at Mwaba’s featured work will show concur that the artist has once again managed to transform himself making him a hard act to follow. In Lusaka, he is largely know as a painter, but in Berlin he showed some collages, and three dimensional mixed media installations among them The Spaceship (D KALO 15) inspired by Nkoloso’s spaceship, what is perhaps most important is that Mwaba is an artist of a humble academic background, but he was able to marry his recent practical work with complex conceptual notions which worked well for the Berlin crowd that is more accustomed to this type of theory-based work.

But this along with many other of Mwaba’s successes over the years is in itself problematic. Because he has managed to penetrate the global arena with no training except the apprenticeship he underwent with the late Lutanda Mwamba in his formative years, he remains an internationally exposed, workshop-trained artist who fuels the notion that academic training is not a prerequisite for success in the art world. While this is true to Mwaba and many other artists around the world, the fact remains that academic training is undeniably necessary for an artist in today’s global art world, just because Mwaba has made it does not mean everyone else should take the same route. Academic qualifications are not only a safe thing to have as an artist but with the impending streamlining of the creative sector in Zambia, one can imagine those with ‘papers’ stand a better chance at receiving artists grants, getting jobs within the industry and so on. Academic training also opens the mind to analytical thinking which can become useful in informing an artist’s work to a higher level.

Mwaba is arguably the most successful artist of his generation and certainly one of the most influential, as early, as 2008 he was selling up to K100, 000 (K100 Million old currency) in single shows which was a record on Zambian soil, he was only 31 at the time, and from his studio space in Lusaka promising artists such as David Makala, Mapopa Manda, Montford Chinunda and his own brother Ng'andwe Mwaba of all passed through his apprenticeship. It can be speculated that inspired by Mwaba none in this group has indicated any interested in formal training beyond artists workshops, this is perhaps because they have been inspired by an artist who is enjoying a run of success without it. (For further reading on Mwaba’s 2014 show, see Mwaba’s ‘Going To Mars’ sends Cheshire children over the moon on www.andrewmulenga.blogspot.com) 

The charming strokes of Zambian painter, Raphael Chilufya

By Andrew Mulenga

From the tender age of 10, Luanshya-born painter Raphael Chilufya’s restless imaginative spirit indicated that he was on a one way path to become an outstanding artist. Creativity was his itch and art was his scratch.

Swing (oil on canvas), by Raphael Chilufya

“I could not control myself when I was a young boy, I just had to draw with anything, on anything, the walls, the road, even in my school books, from the time I had access to pencils,” he says.

But he began to take art seriously while in grade four at Kansumbi Primary School except it was only two years later while in grade six that all his friends yelled out his name when a call for entries to an art competition was announced during assembly. He entered and eventually won this competition and never looked back.

“But really it was when I went to Roan Antelope Secondary School (RASS) which had a very strong art foundation that I was inspired, because I was introduced to new techniques and materials,” he says “When I finished school, I came to Lusaka immediately that was in 1985, my dad was retired and my mother a bread winner passed away. I was given a job by Mrs Musakanya and I had to manage her fleet of buses, but I wasn’t too happy.”

He was not happy because managing a transport business meant waking up at ungodly hours to be on the ground with the fleet as well as spending long hours at an accounts desk, managing figures; this meant he had not time to practice his true vocation.

Own Market (oil on canvas) by Raphael Chilufya

“I was glad to discover the Central African Correspondence College from Zimbabwe which allowed me distance learning, so I enrolled in a course and struggled to do art and work with buses as at the same time. Then Evelyn Hone College launched a two year graphic design course and I quit work and enrolled in 1992 because it demanded that I should be there full time,” he says.

Upon graduation in 1995 he joined the industry and worked for a string of printing houses and creative establishments among them Mojo Press, Piltcher Graphics and Moore Pottery, during this period the newly formed Zambia National Visual Arts Council (VAC) was in need of new members  Chilufya got involved in mobilizing recruitments through the Imiti Ikula (growing trees) project for younger members alongside notable artists such as  Geoffrey Phiri, current VAC vice-chairman  Zenzele Chulu, and current chairman  Mulenga Chafilwa as well as artist turned journalist Ms Diana Mulilo.

Middle of Nowhere (oil on canvas) by Raphael Chilufya

“Although I had a job, as the younger group at VAC, we couldn’t afford or find materials so we were usually helped by the likes of  Godfrey Setti,  William Miko and also s Zukas helped us with money because we used to sleep at the Henry Tayali gallery and vowed never to shut its doors like a police station,” he recalls.

Eventually their beloved workspace at the gallery was turned into a restaurant by new management and the  Imiti Ikula group also outgrew their alliance for independent careers in the visual arts, some joining teaching practice, others choosing their own personal space while  Chilufya decided to head south for inspiration. His venture took him to Mbabane, Swaziland where he successfully held shows at Gallery.com and Indingilizi Art & Craft Gallery.

Left Behind  (oil on canvas)

He moved on to South Africa where he was offered a contract with a black empowerment corporation in Limpopo but could not stay long because it demanded that he work for two years before he could come home to Zambia and marry his fiancé and settle with her there.  Chilufya retuned to Zambia from his foreign adventures after 2002, settled down married his fiancé and returned to practicing as an artist in Lusaka.

Describing himself as a “social environment observer”, he remains one of the country’s finest figurative oil painters of everyday life and his style can easily be identified by the hazy character of his brush strokes and soft palette which could probably be described in fine art terms as a cross between Scumbling and Sfumato.

He has been widely collected both locally and overseas, his works can be viewed or purchased from the Henry Tayali Gallery in the Lusaka show grounds or Twaya Art Gallery at Intercontinental Lusaka. 

(The print version of this article was first published in the August 2014 edition of Zambia’s Bulletin & Record magazine under the title The wandering artist as social environment observer).

Child (oil on canvas) by Raphael Chilfya

Big Advice (oil on canvas) by Raphael Chilufya

House Wife (oil on canvas) by Raphael Chilufya