Ekoka artist: Immanuel Khangono

The San artist we will be focusing on today is Immanuel Khangono.

Immanuel was born in Ekoka, a town in Ohangwena, Namibia. His father and other relatives still live in and around Ohangwena and Immanuel currently lives in Oniihwa, the far side of Ondangwa. He got the job through a nurse at the Ekoka clinic and he looks after the nurse’s father and their cattle. He is very fortunate in that his employer is happy to give him time off in order to attend the drawing workshops run by the Omba Art’s Trust. He intends to start saving some money and would very much like to open a bank account but, like so many in his position, has no ID with which to do so.

He very much enjoys being part of the workshop and feels he has made progress since the last one.

The work below, a linocut (editioned 7/40) displays a circular format in which elements of the natural world, and the artist’s familiar environment) are displayed in a manner that has little reference to real space but rather employs a pleasing use of pictorial arrangement. 

A tradition skill passed down from father to son that many of these men possess is the technique of carving small animals out of wood and one cam almost imagine here that what is displayed is several of these stylized carvings on a single substrate – they are arranged charmingly, each shown off to its best advantage in relation to the others, but no attempt has been made to have them ‘interact’ or form a story. In some of the other works we will address later, we’ll see that this is quite a common format for depicting tools, pots and other hand-made objects, an interesting and unique theme characteristic of their day-to-day focus.

In a rather different vein, the print below (21/40) features three wild dogs or hyenas under a night sky. 

The three dogs have their tongues hanging out and are bound together in a way that is quite unusual in its strong sense of a story or a legend. They are standing on grass and share real space, a feature that is fairly uncommon amongst the works produced in this workshop.

It is important to note that the method of linocut is a particularly efficient method to teach in these workshops for the reason that high editions can be produced. This means that the artist’s have a greater chance of creating an income out of their labour. All works discussed are for sale unframed at the Kalk Bay Modern. KBM also provides an expert framing facility.