Helena Uambembe, born in 1994 in Pomfret, South Africa, is an artist of Angolan descent whose work is heavily influenced by her heritage and experiences. Her parents fled the civil war in Angola and her father was a soldier in the 32nd Battalion of the South African Defence Force. Uambembe's artistic practice explores themes of the 32nd Military Battalion and her Angolan heritage.
She obtained her Btech in 2018 from Tshwane University of Technology in South Africa and is a member of the collective Kutala Chopeto. In 2019, Uambembe won the David Koloane Award and completed a two-month residency at the Bag Factory in Johannesburg. She has exhibited at Art Basel Statement where she was awarded the Baloise Art Prize in 2022.
In 2023, Uambembe was awarded the DAAD Visual Arts Fellowship in Berlin, Germany, which supports international artists to develop their work through a residency program. With a unique artistic voice rooted in her personal experience and heritage, Helena Uambembe continues to explore and push the boundaries of contemporary art.
The woman and the goldfish
2024
The woman and the goldfish is a fictional story that is inspired by the remote village of Pomfret. Pomfret is a town on the edge of the Kalahari desert in the North West Province of south africa. It was an asbestos mining town and later was ‘rehabilitated’ to house the soldiers of the 32 Battalion and their families. When the military was active in Pomfret they had placed a fountain made of stones in the center of Pomfret. The fountain housed koi fish and it was maintained, the water was always flowing while there was water scarcity for the people living in pomfret.
The fictional story looks at the notions of exile, displacement and the limitation of resources. The story also looks at the distortion of time and distance on how change seems to be stagnant but how one can only continue with some sense of normalcy and care.
