In this body of work, artist Jo Rogge returns to Namibia with a solo show built on
their role as a witness and social commentator on a myriad of issues unfolding
around them. Grappling with concerns ranging from the personal to the societal, the
temptation to read the work as a form of activism is irresistible. A radical feminist
reading is a prerequisite if we are to make sense of the title, bearing in mind that
Lot’s loyal wife resisted a commandment, looking back to witness the destruction of
Sodom and Gomorrah, an incident that ‘liberated’ her from enduring the pain of
continuing to live with would-be ‘traitors’, albeit she is said to have been turned into a
pillar of salt. To this, the artist has added the rejoinder: “So what?”
In The Lady Chatelaine was always going to be a prince, the artist presents the
lifeless body of a black figure lying on a supposedly bed of roses, if at all the red
motif is not for the spilling of blood. In this painting Rogge takes on the matter of hate
killings targeting the LGBTQI+ community in Namibia, specifically referencing a
recent brutal and senseless murder widely covered by local media. The conceptual
abstractions Supplication I and II, although stylistically different, echo this theme – a
solemn plea for change in the existent reality. Mythical references also offer clues to
the works Andromeda’s Escape and The Three Fates.
In the series of text-based salvaged textiles, Jou Ma se Doilie, the artist casts their
net beyond queer tropes, capturing memes largely culled from social media, creating
a tongue-in-cheek narrative of stitched words over exquisitely fine embroidery from
the past.
What is desired and what is discarded seems to be a central mantra in both the
artist’s life and the process of their practice. What is self-censorship? What leads
one to edit, distort and deface the past? What is there to hide? Could it be shame?
Only fragments of the truth, disjointed narratives and a distortion of reality remain.
The live art performance in which Rogge erases their written journals and artworks
evokes a number of questions for the audience – concerning not only the artists’
personal journey but also the violent past of recorded history.
Discarded materials, past their use, also largely dictate Rogge’s spontaneous
sculptural compositions. As is the case with artists in most southern African
countries, this form of upcycling emerged as an improvisation mechanism for artists
unable to access conventional art materials, either due to their high costs or scarcity.
Interestingly, materials of this nature always add layers of meaning to the work as
they carry multiple accumulated stories.
A consistent thread underlining this body of work is Rogge’s refusal to be boxed, as
Stephen King reminds us in ‘Shawshank Redemption’:
Some birds are not meant to be caged, that's all. Their feathers are too bright,
their songs too sweet and wild. So, you let them go, or when you open the cage
to feed them, they somehow fly out past you.
Rogge’s solo exhibition, 'so she was turned to a pillar of salt', will be held at The Project Room in Windhoek from 13 September to 12 October 2024.
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