Tag Archives: installation

Interview on the German radio

Do you understand German and would like to listen to an interview about my latest art exhibition?
Then I invite you to please tune in to the NBC German Radio Station on Sunday, 13 January 13 at 18h00 (Namibian time).For those of you who are not living in Namibia, you can listen to the interview on NBC’s livestream via the internet @ http://96.31.83.87:8110/ . If you have missed that one or cannot make it, don’t worry, there will be a re-broadcast on THURSDAY at 22h00 (17 January).

The program’s name is Kaleidoskop and it will feature a 30min interview with me, hosted by Annemarie Brell. The interview will give you an insight into my views on environmental art, we are talking about my works that have been exhibited recently in Swakopmund at my solo exhibition “…and I sensed an infinite scream passing through the Namib” and I share information how the works originated and what my intentions are.

Many people have commented that they have really enjoyed my earlier brief interview done in the beginning of December, just after the opening of the exhibition, so I hope this will be equally interesting. 🙂

You can find more information on the radio station’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/germanradio

Me busy installing the 99 black roses (made out of barbed wire and rubbish bags) in the Namib desert for a temporary site-specific installation.

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

In search of elves and fairies and green, green grass

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Yellow Heart - Yellow flowers and moss on a rock

As a Namibian desert girl I recently had an interesting and exciting time in the very green and lush mountains of South Tyrol. All the dense vegetation was amazing, the little mountain creeks with their clear water fascinating and I especially fell in love with the soft moss growing everywhere. I was reminded of childhood stories of dwarfs, fairies and elves living in the forests and sleeping on beds of moss, carrying sweet forest berries as decoration and giggling under red and white mushrooms… as a child I did not know these things and wonderful places and my imagination ran wild. Now I walked through such magical forests in awe and wonder like a little child, eating some forest strawberries and making some art. I did not see any elves or red-capped dwarfs, but still I had lots of fun with the invisible spirits of nature and art.

Ok, I do not want to bore you with long stories, but rather just share some pictures of my small interventions in nature. So, here they are:

Location: Oberperflhof, approximately 1,500m above sea level, close to Katharinaberg / Monte Santa Caterina – in the Schnalsvalley (Val Senales), Italy.

Date: July 2011

Yellow Heart (close) - Yellow flowers and moss on a rock

8m garland woven of small cedar branches

Sprial on stone wall (8m garland woven of small cedar branches)

Rock, branch & grass

Light, leave tips and wood

Berlin Stages

Art in the Park (Berlin)

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Summer has arrived in Berlin, with lovely warmth and sunshine. So it is the ideal time to get out and make some art outside. As i still do not have a studio, working outside is another great way of being creative.

There is a small community park just around the corner from where we live, so while the others played Badminton I kept myself busy with this…

For a change, not so much text and rather more pictures. Enjoy!

Untitled land art intervention by Imke Rust.

(Gemeindepark Lankwitz, Berlin, 7 June 2011)

Still Weeping – Four Years Later

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Shortly after completion 2007 – still standing tall

Transformation, change and a tribute to an old myth were the central topics of my land-art installation “Weeping Women” (2007). Based on the San myth about the origin of the huge salt pans at the famous Etosha National Park in Namibia, the artwork consisted of seven tall figures made out of rock-salt. The figures, representing the women who have cried so much for their murdered men and children, that their tears collected into a huge salt-lake, which eventually dried out, were intended to symbolically cry every time it rains. The pure raindrops would mix with the salt and create a natural tear solution, while at the same time also wear away the figures. The “Weeping Women” were meant to cry for all the sadness of the world and slowly wash away. Once they are gone, I hope, enough tears have flown and the world will be a better place.

By recreating the myth through my artwork, I hoped to raise the awareness about the myth, the violence we inflict on our fellow human beings and the pain and sadness of this world in general. But I also hope to offer a solution: although we need to be aware of the history, we should not get stuck in it with blaming and revenge, as this continues the vicious cycle. And just like the Christian myth of Lot’s wife, who could not let go of her past, we will turn into rigid, dry and bitter salt-pillars, unable to move forward. Through acknowledging our pain and emotions and releasing them through the salty tears we cry (and not through calls for or acts of revenge), we can mourn and heal.

The “Weeping Women” have now mourned for four rainy seasons, most of which were unusually heavy rains, with record rains recorded in Namibia during the past four months…. Maybe the world needs to cry a lot in our current times? Most of the “Weeping Women” have “done their duty” and have transformed, cried away and returned to the soil. One is still standing about 50cm high, hopefully crying her last tears during the next rainy season, after which the artwork will have disappeared and with it, hopefully also the need for further tears. I know, I am an eternal optimist and idealist…., that’s just me, but maybe I am not alone?

The last “woman” standing (17 April 2011)

To see more pictures of this work and its transformation, please click here.