Cassi NamodaWhy such a journey devoid of return, 2021-2022
Originally presented at Sharjah Biennial 16, Cassi Namoda’s ‘Why such a journey devoid of return’ transforms a traditional dhow sail into a gestural, painterly surface – an ephemeral monument to oceanic memory, migration, and cultural entanglement along the Swahili coast. Suspended and stained with expressive mark-making, the sail becomes both a bearer of history and a contemporary witness, evoking the layered stories of seafaring, trade, and spiritual navigation that have long connected the coastal cities of Mozambique, Kenya, and South Africa. Informed by Luso-African histories and oral mythologies, the work emerges from Namoda’s immersion in the rhythms and rituals of these port communities.
Though self-taught, her aesthetic draws from the emotive palette and compositional daring of Fauvism, recontextualised through an African diasporic lens. The sculpture speaks to cycles of departure, return, and loss, foregrounding practices of sustenance and resilience in the face of extractive violence, climate precarity, and disrupted kinship. In this work, the sail becomes not just a tool of movement, but a vessel of remembrance and a site of poetic resistance.
