An Infinite Scream – Press-Release

SubRosa
Temporary site-specific art installation by Imke Rust

What do you do, when an arts association cancels your exhibition because they find it too political? And when a cultural centre asks you to change your exhibition proposal to hide the true message so that it might stand a chance of being shown? You make sure it gets shown anyway, in an unbiased space.

And so Imke Rust’s latest solo exhibition, entitled ‘… and I sensed an infinite scream passing through the Namib’ will open at “The Last Resort Wellness Centre” in Libertina Amathila Ave 5, Swakopmund (opposite of Hotel Pension A la Mer) on the 9^th of December at 17h00. It can be viewed thereafter till the 29^th of December, between 14h00 and 18h00, Mondays till Saturdays.

In this environmental art exhibition Imke Rust, who grew up in Swakopmund and is still closely connected to it, addresses the current debates and happenings concerning the plans for increased mining and industrial activities in the coastal area. In her work she uses a variety of media and approaches to highlight the concerns of the general public and to search for alternative solutions in the environmental conflict. While she is painting a gloomy picture of possible disastrous long-term effects of the current developments, she also reminds people of their responsibility to look after their land and that they have the power to make changes towards a better future.

Once more, Imke Rust has produced a powerful body of work, exploring and openly questioning social and political controversial issues. Central to the exhibition are temporary land art works that the artist has installed in the Namib Desert. At the exhibition these installations and interventions will be presented through photographic and video documentation. She evocatively combines natural and man-made materials such as thorns, salt, dung, rubbish bags, barbed wire and videos in her captivating artworks. She even got complete strangers involved in a documented art action for the environment on the jetty.

The artist neither preaches nor dictates what the viewer’s stance should be. Instead the exhibition draws you in and compels you to engage and consider the complexities of the debate. It is an empowering experience and should definitely not be missed.

A small part of the exhibition has already been shown in Berlin earlier this year, where it was received with great interest. Intriguingly the Swakopmund Arts Association has cancelled Rust’s booking of the Woermann Gallery on the premises that the “impertinent and unscientific public debate against the economically important uranium mining industry […] is politically charged“.

For more information please contact me via this blog and webpage or find my artist page on Facebook (and like it, if you are also on Facebook 🙂 ) or go directly to the Event’s page, also on Facebook.

Looking forward to seeing many of you at the opening or afterwards!

The Last Resort Well/ness Centre – Swakopmund
Libertina Amathila Ave 5

Save the date!

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You are invited!

“…and I sensed an infinite scream passing through the Namib”

An environmental art exhibition by Imke Rust

From the 9^th till the 29^th of December Imke Rust will show her latest body of work in Swakopmund. The exhibition addresses the current debates concerning the plans for increased mining and industrial activities in the coastal area. Through her diverse artworks she invites the viewer to engage in and consider the complexities of the controversial issues. The artist will be present at the opening.

Opening: 9^th of December at 17h00

Venue: The Last Resort Well/ness Centre, Libertina Amathila Str. 5, Swakopmund.

Duration of exhibition: 10^th – 29^th of December 2012

Opening Times: 14h00 – 18h00, Mondays till Saturdays

Works sold in aid of the SPCA and Cat Protection Society

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Two of my older works about the human-canine relationship as a metaphor for power relations on a personal, social and political level, have been sold as part of an auction to raise money for the local SPCA and Cat Protection Society.

I am excited to be able to help in a small way and support the great work these organizations are doing. And we are working on another idea of selling some more of my works depicting dogs and cats via Facebook. So soon you could hopefully become the owner of one of my works and at the same time doing something good for all the homeless pets out in Windhoek. I will keep you posted.
Till then you can see the two works which were sold already:

My Best Friend ©Imke Rust
Digital Print on Paper, A2, Edition of 5

Lonely Dog in Blue ©Imke Rust
Acrylic and digital print on paper
60x60cm
2002

Wishing you and your best friend a happy day!

Art Clubs – what a brilliant idea!

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Sold! This lady will be traveling to her new home(s) in Denmark.

: Untitled, 59 x 42cm, Ink, Acrylic on paper. © Imke Rust

I have just sold this drawing on paper from my current figurative series to the Danish art club “C67” (from the town of Hjørring) after they visited me in my studio. Their visit to galleries and artists’ studios in Berlin was organized by the Danish artist Mads Dahl Pedersen, who’s studio is in the same building as mine. (Go and check out his artworks by clicking on his name, once you are finished here).

Besides being happy about another sale of my art, I also got to know about art clubs for the first time. Here is what I learned about them:

Art clubs are very popular in Denmark and it sounds like such a cool idea: Each member pays a small monthly fee and the money gets used to buy art. The members of the art club can then hang the work in their own houses for a month, after that time the work goes on to the next member, so that everybody gets a chance to live with the artwork. Once a year they hold an auction, where the members can bid on the works they really like and want, and the highest bidder gets to be the final owner of the work. What a cool idea to stimulate the interest in art and keep it fun and interesting, while at the same time building up a good collection of art!

This particular club has eleven members. I think that is an average number so that each member can have each artwork for one month in the year. And each member pays about 60 Euros per month. I guess the amount payable is made up by the group and depends on their income. So that starting an art club is not a matter of being well-off, but rather of putting your money together to buy great art. And you meet once a month, go to galleries together, talk about art and exchange ideas and views.

Maybe this idea can take root in Namibia (or wherever you are living)? What do you think, is this a brilliant idea or what?

A rare chance to view my older works in Windhoek

Tate Kuru, a tree and a road – a story of courage and doing the right thing

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A little sketch I made to remember this awesome story

Some years ago I lived in Oshakati, a town in northern Namibia, which was/is a crazy mix between traditional Africa and urban shopping centers, absolute poverty and tremendous wealth, thousands of people and similar amounts of donkeys, goats and hungry dogs roaming the streets. Not really a pretty place, but interesting and alive.

The time there left a huge impression on me in many ways and left me with quite a few stories to tell. The memory of one story suddenly returned to me in vivid colours and stubbornly keeps sticking in my thoughts. I guess it is a good time to tell and share this story, as it is so inspiring. Here it goes:

One day we left Oshakati, driving north-west towards Ruacana with a friend. The surrounding area is pretty flat and the road at most places unimaginatively straight, except for one place. About 50km outside of Oshakati the straight road heads straight towards a gorgeous, huge tree. Shortly before the road meets the tree it makes a bend to the right and travels around it, just to take up its normal course shortly afterwards. I commented that I thought that was great of the engineers that they did not just chop down the tree in their way, but instead planned for the street to go around it. Our friend smiled and told us, that the engineers and road builders had no intention to do this, but planned to fell the tree. A ‘Tate Kuru’ (Ovambo for wise old man) – I assume from a nearby village – found out their plans and did not want this ancient, impressive tree to die to make place for the street. He pleaded with them, but the authorities were not interested and told him the tree has to go in the name of development.

The old man was not that easily impressed, so he went home, got his gun and sat under the tree, threatening to shoot anybody that tried to remove him or the tree. He sat there for a very long time, day and night, protecting the tree from the developers and nobody knew what to do with this stubborn and determined ‘Tate Kuru’. Eventually his perseverance of this one old chap won and amazingly the developers build the road around the tree. Unfortunately I do not know who this guy was… I would love to meet him and thank him.

I made a tiny little drawing to remind me of the responsibility and power we all have towards our environment.

The moral of the story?

If one old man can protect a tree from a tarred road and rich developers, so can you and me. We just need to remember what is really important and act accordingly. And remember this very special ‘Tate Kuru’ if you ever feel that you are all alone or not strong enough to make the world a better place.

You alone can make a difference, and if we join forces, we can make an even greater difference. And sometimes some bold actions and perseverance is needed.

Just to prove to you that this story is not made up, I have located the spot on Google satellite images and marked it for you. You can clearly see the road making a bend around the big dark tree.

If you want to know why this story is so important to me at the moment, read on:

I am really concerned about the future of our beautiful Namib Desert and coastal area around Swakopmund – just recently the Namibian Cabinet has agreed to sell 700 hectares of the Dorop National Park to a company who plans to build a huge industrial and chemical plant. Eventually they will need about 3000 hectares according to their plans, also all inside the recently established Dorop National Park. The same company (and some others) also has plans for marine phosphate mining along our coast and they have already acquired the respective EPLs (Exclusive Prospecting Licenses). In most parts of the world it is prohibited to mine marine phosphate which is highly radioactive and scientists do not know what impact the mining could have on the ecosystem and oceans. You can get much more detailed and scientific information about this on “The Earth Organization Namibia” blog.

Have a look at some of the artworks which I have made for this cause here. And watch out for my exhibition in Swakopmund in December!

About a year ago a small group of concerned citizens has got together and are trying to spread information on this situation and the possible consequences and to protect our home from pollution and exploitation. They have formed several Facebook forums and they have also started a petition.

Please support this cause, by joining the Facebook groups, signing the petition and by getting informed and active in whatever way you can.

Link to the Petition: (just click on the links to be taken straight to the respective sites)

http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/the-ministers-of-environment-tourism-and-fisheries-marine-resources-listen-to-scientists-don-t-let-phosphate-mining-threaten-namibia-s-ocean

Facebook Pages:

Industrial Swakopmund?? What future do we want!

We Say NO to Gecko’s VIP Industrial zone near the Namib Coast

A good summary of some background information can be found at:

“The Earth Organization Namibia” blog

Also:

Encourage your family, friends and contacts to send their e-mail addresses to the following e-mail address so that a comprehensive mailing list can be maintained and all those can be reached and kept informed about the environment of the Namibian coastline and its ocean:

swakopmundmatters@mtcmobile.com.na

Curled-up Woman

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Curled Up Woman (Ink on paper, A2) (c) Imke Rust

Today I am sharing a new drawing of mine with you. I am busy with writing of applications and organizing to have an exhibition at the end of the year in Namibia, so I do not have time to write a long blog. Hope you enjoy the picture instead 🙂

New look, new stuff

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Have you seen my webpage lately? I have been pretty busy giving it a face-lift and adding some of my more recent works. (For those that have missed me and my posts, now you know why I have been so quiet.) I realized that although I had posted some of my works on my blog, I have not put them up on my webpage, where they are easier to find. And I have added some totally new stuff. So instead of writing a long post, I am inviting you to go over to my home page and explore. Here is the link: imkerust.com

And as always, I would love to hear your comments, so do not be shy and give me some feedback of what you think of the work or the new layout etc?

For a change not a picture of my art, but one I took while working on a land art project in the Namib Desert, Namibia.

Can art do more?

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Photographing the first day’s work of the ‘Saltcircles’ during a misty sunset. (photograph by Steffen Holzkamp)

Art can be thought-provoking, inspiring and make the world more beautiful. But can it do more?

Part of my being is that I question everything. I love understanding the relations between things, the ‘why?’ of everything. I also love to find alternative solutions to problems or do things other people think cannot be done.

Often I ask myself, why am I doing art? What ‘real’ purpose does it serve? And can it do more than just look pretty, be a clever idea or make people think? Somehow all these things have not yet completely satisfied me. Yes, they all have merit and even a purely decorative painting has its purpose, but I believe there is more to life and more to art.

This has led my search, amongst others, to old, shamanic traditions. Somewhere during my art history studies I came across a reference to Ethiopian healing scrolls. If a person was sick, the priest would make scrolls according to specific rules (for instance the scroll needed to be as long as the person’s height, if I remember correctly), on which they painted symbols and wrote prayers. These scrolls were then taken home by the sick person and were viewed every day till the illness was cured. Interesting – art made to heal somebody?

Again and again I stumbled onto references where art is used for protection, fertility, health, initiation or to manifest a desired state. I became more aware that in olden days the shamans and priests made use of what we today call art (dance, painting, sculpture, music, etc.) to do their work of healing, blessing and manifesting. Since I read about the healing scrolls, I have been looking at the link between art and spiritual and mythical traditions and beliefs more closely. I do believe that under certain circumstances, art has more power and effect than what we normally imagine, and so I decided to try and be much more conscious about what kind of art I am making and why and how…

Working in the Moon Valley, Namib Desert (Photograph by Steffen Holzkamp)

Be the change that you want to see in the world

In 2007 I made my first conscious work into this direction. I developed a personal Yin & Yang symbol to harmonize and balance the male and female energies in my life (Click here if you are curious). In 2010, I hoped for rain and made a work entitled ‘Rainmaker’ (read more about it here) – this was the start of becoming more interested in working directly in nature. Towards the end of last year the general concern about the environmental threats posed to the Namib desert by increased mining and industrial activities and proposed plans for off-shore mining of phosphate on the Namibian coast, started growing. Having grown up in Swakopmund and still considering it one of my homes, I, too, am concerned and decided to find ways in which I can do my part “to make the world a better place” and protecting the environment.

I realized that protesting or being against what I consider to be a threat is not the way to change things – or at least not my way. Instead I looked at ways of putting energy into the reality I would like to experience: a balanced, healthy and protected environment, in which all beings co-exist in a harmonious way, without destroying each other. This is based on the spiritual idea of ‘what you sow is what you reap’.

Planting black ‘roses’ in the Namib Desert (Photograph by Steffen Holzkamp)

The works had to fulfill at least one of two different purposes:

to protect, bless and heal the land
to make the threats visible and conscious, because if you have looked into the eyes of the danger, you understand it better and loose the fear and can act from a stronger base.

Loosely based on different aspects of old shamanic and spiritual traditions from all over the world, I tried to find my own formal approach, use of form, symbols, rituals and materials according to my intentions to produce my art or healing works.

Click here to be taken to see a small selection of the resulting artworks and brief descriptions.

I appeared back to back with Madonna in Berlin

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Yes, it is true. This weekend I appeared back to back with Madonna right here in Berlin. You are right, my musical talent sucks, but my art is getting more and more famous.

Ok, I did not appear on stage, but while the superstar Madonna got the front page of the cultural supplement of the German magazine “Der Tagesspiegel” this past weekend, my artwork appeared on the very next page – basically back to back.

I have to admit that I am not a fan of her music, but I do really admire how she has made it from a small unknown girl to become one of the most famous female musicians in the world, with pure guts, hard work and determination.

And I am just overly excited that I, a ‘small Namibian girl’, am having a solo exhibition in Berlin and getting a prominent mention in a leading newspaper… I hope that this is another ~~small~~ big step towards making my mark in Germany and get some more recognition (and sales) for my art. It would be wonderful if my artwork caught the eyes and attention of a small percentage of their 350 000 readers.

The more attention my art gets the more attention the subject and cause behind the exhibition will get: Raising the consciousness about our Namibian environment, especially the coastal area and Namib desert and the possible threats from the mining and other industries and pollution.

Here is a cut-out from the newspaper:

Tagesspiegel 30 June 2012 Cultural pages with a picture of my work SubRosa.

The caption says:

” Black barbed wire roses in the Namib. Today the exploitation looks differently than in the times of the German colonial power. The landscapes of Namibia are threatened by the mining of natural resources and pollution. The artist Imke Rust lives in Windhoek and Berlin. She protests with her ‘land art’ – here the installation “SubRosa” – against the destruction of the nature. “Goldgräberstimmung”: Photos and videos by Imke Rust can be viewed up to the 16^th of July in the Berlin Grafik Studio Galerie Neumann (Rigaer Str 62). “

If you are interested, you can read the online version of the “Tagesspiegel” here.

Info about the work:

SubRosa (Under the Rose) by Imke Rust

Temporary installation in the Namib Desert Dune belt south of Swakopmund.
22° 43’ 01” S – 14° 33’ 47” E
Original dimensions: 90 x 270 x270cm
99 roses made of black rubbish bags, barbed wire, wire
April 2012