Select Page

Art Exhibition by Jo Rogge

Always and Forever in three easy steps. Celebrated artist, Jo Rogge brings a selection of her works to the gallery at the Franco Namibian Cultural Centre. The exhibition starts on Monday 06 July and runs until the first week of August. UN/declared UN/desirable Inherited Wor(l)ds

“Refuse always, refuse dictated hatred, unbreakable borders, ordained deaths at sea, behind walls, in broken streets. Stand together, the pariahs, the unwanted, stand together for the soft swell of our human, women’s selves.” Unknown 

Some of the themes familiar in Rogge’s previous work still linger here – gender violence and the representation of female sexuality – but there is growing evidence of a shift of focus in the new work which is more conceptual and contemplative in nature.

 

Rogge’s work has always been imbued with power and meaning, and which in the words of one reviewer, “never fails to touch and move you”. The works that have been specially curated for this exhibition show the dexterity of the artist in the form of traditional paintings and drawings as well as assemblages using various materials. Rogge salvages found and natural materials and upcycles objects into interesting sculptural forms.
In this exhibition one sees an artist in transition, personally, stylistically and conceptually.
Reflecting on her life as an artist, Rogge seemingly has come to term with the fact that she is the product of an often uncomfortable blending of cultures, nations and languages. However, she states that she does not identify with any of these deterministic influences, instead the artist uses the languages from each as a signifier of her detachment that entrenches a sense of unbelonging in the world.
Rogge’s dabbling in charity and publishing gave her the exposure she needed to find her own locus, helping her to edify her chosen chosen identity as a fluid being, consciously exploring intersectionalities. This constitutes her consistent ‘othering’ in a heteronormative world.
The artist seeks metaphors for, and is motivated by, the omnipresent fear and anxiety, stigma and discrimination around issues of nationality, sex, race, ethnicity, class, migration and sexuality in her temporary ‘home’land, the continent and her European ‘mother’land.
The selection of works can only be described as a physical, temporal, cultural, and psychological experience of dislocation, the sense of being uprooted, of unfamiliarity, uncertainty, instability and insecurity.

 

Date/Time: Monday, 06 July, 18h30 until 05 August
Venue: FNCC Gallery
Entry is Free

About The Author