Helena Uambembe

Lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa

Artist statement

Helena Uambembe’s practice is personal and particular. As an interdisciplinary artist, she uses performance, photography and printmaking to recreate and reposition the history of the 32 Battalion, the infantry Battalion of the South African Army Founded in 1975. Uambembe draws on her own history rooted in the small North Western Town of Pomfret, where she was born (of Angolan parents) and where her father was recruited into the 32 Battalion. Once the home of the Battalion recruits and soldiers, the town has glided into a ghost town as it is slowly becoming deserted and forgotten. Uambembe uses this technique as a medium of creation to rupture concealments into revelations. Uambembe’s work is a piecing together of fragmented and fractured histories resulting in images with sharp edges, hollows and a stark sense of melancholy. The 32 Battalion becomes a master narrative she uses to investigate and explore the past. Fragmented pieces become a way of mending and compressing time, while weaving together ideas around home and identity.

Artwork