Zambian artist Patrick Mumba gave Grocott’s Mail a tour of his exhibition his exhibition at the Albany Museum on Friday 13 November.
Zambian artist Patrick Mumba gave Grocott’s Mail a tour of his exhibition his exhibition at the Albany Museum on Friday 13 November.
Zambia has benefited economically from the mining of copper and other minerals, says Zambian artist Patrick Mumba. But these benefits have come at great cost to the environment.
Mumba held his final exhibition for his Rhodes University Masters in Fine Art on 12 and 13 November.
Titled ‘Time in between’, it draws the viewer into the processes of decay and degradation with light, tone and texture. In his artist’s statement, he says colonial greed, contemporary economic greed, and personal experience also inform his work.
“My work mostly is informed by the mining of copper in Zambia, the despoiling of the landscape by the mining industry, the deforestation.
“When the mining companies were making money from copper, most people enjoyed a better living standard.
“But now the mining industry is not making us much money. And there are areas that used to shine, which have now decayed because of lack of maintenance.”
Mumba is fascinated by materials that started off new – and shiny.
“But with the passage of time, these metals have rusted and completely changed form. And that is what inspires me.
The exhibition’s title, Time in Between, Mumba says, is developed from the idea that in life, nothing is permanent.
“As something changes shape and form with the passage of time, it becomes abstracted, visually. So that’s the idea I’ve been working on.”
Listen here: bit.ly/GrocPatrick
Inheritance
“If you look at this one it was at some point part of a new car. That’s why I’ve given it the title, Inheritance: we’ve inherited this part of the car which once was new, but which is now completely old and rusted.
“Of course, it looks old, but I see beauty in the oldness.”
“This painting, it was part of a car. It was a blue car. But with time it cracked in the sun – you see these dark-blue patches are where the paint has rusted.
“But when you look at it, it creates and abstract pattern – but basically it’s just a piece of old rusted metal which was a car. You can no longer identify it as a car.”
Dawn
“If we say there’s a beginning and an ending – light brings a beginning in the morning.”
Evening Shadow, acrylic on canvas 2015
“And then look at that – it’s almost like sunset. You see the shadow, so there’s that flow of the in-between time, and things change from light to darkness.”
Global warming: Floods
“In some parts of the world, global warming brings floods.
Global warming: Drought
“In between times, things shift. Things cannot be permanent.
“In between times we’ve seen how areas in my country which were green – most of those areas are dry because of those people cutting wood for charcoal.
“There is always that temporariness in life, which creates new images of abstraction.
“I was once a young boy. In another 40 years, I will be so old with wrinkles.
“Of course I hope people will still see beauty in me, even in that old age.
“There is that temporariness of everything in life – whether a human being, or a car. Nothing is permanent.”
About Patrick Mumba
Mumba, who comes from Zambia, completed a diploma in art in the 80s to teach art in secondary schools.
He studied for four years at Slade School of Fine Art in London, receiving an honours degree in fine art in 1994. Until last year, he has worked as lecturer and head of department at Evelyn Hone College in Lusaka.
He enrolled at Rhodes University in 2014 and his exhibition was in completion of his Masters degree, along with his thesis, ‘Abstract Art and the Contested Ground of African Modernisms’.
A fellow artist reflects
Grahamstown artist Martin Glover reflects on these paintings: Listen here: bit.ly/GrocMartin
* Sue Maclennan conducted the interviews and took the photos of the artworks. Martin Glover took the photo of Patrick Mumba.
sue@grocotts.co.za
