Goodman Gallery is pleased to present Cuida bem da pouca sorte by Helena Uambembe.
This marks the artist’s first solo presentation in London and follows her inclusion in the British Pavilion public programme at the 60th Venice Biennale. Uambembe plays around with irony and fortune to explore exilic identity, nationhood and the residue of military occupation.
Her practice is rooted in her family’s story of forced migration to South Africa following the Angolan civil war - a conflict that stemmed from the Cold War playing out on the African continent. Uambembe’s father was a soldier in the 32 Battalion, a unit in the South African Defence Force deployed to southern Angola. People who were coerced into SADF military service during apartheid South Africa’s long-term illegal occupation and border war with Angolan communist forces were later denied assistance and exiled from their home country.
The drawings stem from the artist's observation of Europe’s influx of military recruitment, particularly posters and adverts targeting younger generations and drawing on language such as ‘brotherhood’.
These are compared to her community of military refugees and the coercion and manipulation tactics used to get them to join the military to survive.
The canvas works draw on Uambembe’s background in printmaking. Using stencils and oil paint sticks on primed canvas to trace the abstracted, puppet-like figures, highlighting the loss of self-identity that occurs in the military.
Here, the canvas is treated like a textile piece with hemmed edges. The colours red, blue and green symbolise luck and prosperity, an ironic association when thinking about war and its violent residue.
The presentation also includes an installation of dog tags with phrases such as “every dog has its day” accompanied by flowers. This work is reminiscent of her exhibitions at Museum für Moderne Kunst and Kunsthalle Bremen in 2023 and 2024 respectively.
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