Tuli Mekondjo, a Namibian artist born in 1982 in Angola, transforms the pain of history into vibrant, tactile explorations of ancestry and identity. Her multidisciplinary practice, incorporating embroidery, photo transfer, painting, resin, and mahangu grain, is deeply rooted in the sociohistorical context of Namibia, a land shaped by colonialism and resilience. Mekondjo’s work serves as both homage and reclamation, weaving personal and collective narratives into a complex tapestry of healing, memory, and hope
She employs diverse materials such as natural silks, embroidery, photo transfers, soil, paint, resin, and mahangu (millet), a Namibian staple food, to reinterpret imagery from historical photographs taken during the German colonial period (1884–1919) and the subsequent South African occupation. Mekondjo’s layered creations emerge through a process of symbolic burial and excavation, drawing deeply from archival representations of indigenous Namibian people across various ethnic groups.
In addition to her visual art, Mekondjo incorporates performance into her practice, extending her archival research and connecting herself to Namibia’s historical narrative. Her work emphasizes the presence of female ancestors, beginning with her bond to her mother and grandmother, and tracing an ancestral lineage of women. This connection weaves her performances with her two-dimensional works, often featuring embroidered wombs and fetuses that metaphorically link the origins of life to the land and the enduring role of women.
Mekondjo’s childhood in refugee camps in Angola and Zambia during Namibia’s War of Independence infuses her art with an intimate understanding of displacement and longing. Sensitive to the scars of history, her work reclaims and reframes the imagery of local Namibians captured during the colonial and apartheid eras. Using historical photographs, postcards, and archival materials, she liberates her subjects from the objectifying colonial gaze, honoring their memory and humanity.
Her ongoing exploration of German colonial postcards transforms mundane depictions of daily life—mothers with children, men in traditional dress—into powerful, layered narratives. Through embroidery, Mekondjo breathes life into these static figures, adorning them with anatomical forms like wombs, ovaries, and roots. These embellishments suggest generational trauma but also resilience and connection, symbolizing the unbroken chain of ancestry that persists even in the face of erasure.
Mekondjo’s process is as grounded in the physical as it is in the spiritual. She actively engages with the land, burying her canvases in soil to let the earth leave its mark. Layers of resin, mahangu, and rusted metal imprint her surfaces with patterns that evoke nature’s textures and cycles. This interplay of decay and creation mirrors the fragmentary character of memory and history.
Her use of mahangu, a staple grain in Namibia, ties her work to the labor of women who cultivate the land, emphasizing their essential role in sustaining life and culture. This collaboration with the natural world infuses her works with a tactile quality, connecting viewers to the physical and spiritual landscapes of Namibia.Mekondjo’s distinctive embroidered elements—fetuses linked by roots, botanical motifs entwined with human forms—create a visual language that bridges the past and the present. These stitched additions pulsate with life and energy, juxtaposed against the often-muted tones of the archival photographs they inhabit. In some works, figures crowned in gold appear shrouded in flora, as if protected by the embrace of nature.
Through her meticulous layering, Mekondjo creates a palimpsest—an artwork that mirrors the fragmented and layered nature of memory itself. The interplay of materials and techniques reflects how history is never singular or static but alive and evolving.
Mekondjo’s art has garnered international recognition, with her works exhibited at prestigious venues such as 1:54 London, the Investec Cape Town Art Fair, and group shows in France and Germany. In 2022, she was awarded a fellowship by the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program, cementing her status as a significant voice in contemporary art. Despite her global presence, Mekondjo remains rooted in Windhoek, Namibia, where she continues to educate and inspire through her practice.
Tuli Mekondjo’s art is a testament to the power of creativity to confront, question, and heal. Her intricate works invite viewers to look beyond surface beauty into the deeper layers of history, memory, and identity. By reclaiming narratives and collaborating with the earth itself, Mekondjo bridges the divide between the personal and the collective, the past and the present. In her hands, art becomes a living archive, a sanctuary for the stories and spirits of those who came before, and a beacon for those who will follow.
