At the bottom of the world’s social hierarchy is the black woman. While universally seen as ‘strong and enduring’, she is truly the most vulnerable and unprotected of all women. She has been forced to bear innumerable burdens in a way that continues to be profoundly culturally toxic and abusive to her psyche. Pamela Enyonu seeks to reclaim the woman’s story from the invisible hands that write, rejecting the prevailing narratives and fictionalized, fetishized versions of women and give lead to more powerful versions of womanhood. 

According to the writer Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, “myths and folktales are coded texts that a person with the right tools can decode to shed light not only on life in the past, but the present and future as well. At the same time, they allow our imagination to leap back into the past and bring it with us to the present.” For the guest space invitation by Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, we are presenting the work of Ugandan artist Pamela Enyonu who has decoded the Njabala Folklore to create Dancing With Winnowers.

Dancing with Winnowers, 2022 is a collection of visual metaphors inspired by the ordinary act of winnowing to monumentalize healing, choice, and meditation. The installation comprises of ropes sewn into discs and joined together to form a tapestry embellished with circular forms of glass beads. The tapestry is suspended in midair like a cascading waterfall. At the bottom of the cascade is a bowl-like artefact with grain resting on the odero (winnowing plate). The installation is accompanied by a sound piece made of audio footage from the act of Winnowing. By using the odero to represent the choice one can exercise and the half-filled grain bowl to represent the things we hold dear to us, the installation invites its viewers to take stock, sort and hopefully cast off the things that no longer serve them. In the shish of the wind, the sway of the waves, oderos lifted and grains dropped, hypnotic movements of the work, one is reminded of what it feels like to feel light and unburdened.