“Shifting the Gaze” at Livingstone Office for Contemporary Art (LoCA)
Curated by Stéphane Kabila, “Shifting the Gaze” is a vital exploration of notions referring to id, belonging, and sociopolitical historical past as they seem in latest works by Marita Banda, Bwanga “Benny Blow” Kapumpa, and Andy Storchenegger. Within the three-channel video set up No person is Okay, 2021–22, Banda and Storchenegger spotlight the complicated and infrequently uncomfortable emotions that encompass concepts of belonging. The video departs from excerpts of Banda’s poems earlier than transferring on to footage of figures in stretchy monochrome costumes as they navigate the rocky landscapes round Livingstone.
In his multimedia installations, Kapumpa questions the dichotomous relationship between Christian and Indigenous understandings of spirituality and therapeutic. He emphasizes the harmonies and tensions between these two approaches by placing into proximity symbols, sounds, and objects utilized in each perception methods. As an illustration, the morning hen name in A Acquainted Poem, 2022, would possibly symbolize a nasty omen to Indigenous spiritualists, whereas within the context of Christianity, the place the dove is related to the tip of the flood, its name would possibly sign reduction from a trial or impediment. Different sculptural and sound installations push again on the concept of pure medication as “witchcraft,” combining reed mats, folks music, and paper ads for companies offered by ngangas (conventional healers) collected off public partitions in Livingstone.
As an entire, the exhibition foregrounds the significance of inventive analysis whereas providing an area for one to ponder what it means to belong, to face out, or to assimilate inside completely different communities and locales.
— Gladys Kalichini
