Malawian artist Kambalu selected to display at The Fourth Plinth on London’s Trafalgar Square

Kambalu chose his career path in art at Kamuzu Academy

* The Fourth Plinth one of the world’s most famous public art commissions

* It plays an important role in bringing contemporary art and debate to millions

* An established icon for London, it brings out the art critic in everyone

By Duncan Mlanjira

London-based Malawian artist, Samson Kambalu has been selected to display at The Fourth Plinth — one of the world’s most famous public art commissions on London’s Trafalgar Square.

Kambalu, born in 1975 in Malawi, chose his career path in art at Kamuzu Academy and he now lives and works in Oxford where he is an Associate Professor of Fine Art and fellow at Magdalen College, Oxford University.

He is set to be joined by other renowned world artists — Nicole Eisenman from Brooklyn, New York; Polish Goshka Macuga based in London; Ghanaian Ibrahim Mahama based in Accra; Mexican Teresa Margolles and German Paloma Varga Weisz based in Düsseldorf, Germany.

The Fourth Plinth plays an important role in bringing contemporary art and debate to millions as an established icon for London, which brings out the art critic in everyone.

According to london.go.uk, Kambalu’s often irreverent fusion of social, national and artistic tropes and identities is intentionally mischievous and provocative.

“His aim is to skew our reading of cultural behaviour and customs and to seek out the areas where humanity meets. The artist grounds his multi-media practice in Nyau culture — a secret society of the Chewa tribe, Malawi, which is especially known for its ritual mask performances.

“Kambalu’s ‘Nyau Cinema’ is characterised by spontaneity, playfulness and a non-linear approach to time,” says london.go.uk. “Kambalu works in a variety of media, including site-specific installation, video, performance and literature.”

Apart from fusing his work in the aspects of Chewa prestation culture, london.go.uk says it includes the anti-reification strategies of the Situationist movement and the Protestant tradition of inquiry, criticism and dissent.

“He has developed a praxis around psychogeographical cinema inspired by aspects of cinema of attractions. Samson Kambalu was included in Okwui Enwezor’s All the World’s Futures, Venice Biennale 2015.

“His recent solo exhibition History Without a Past at Muzee, Ostend, in 2020, was in conversation with Vincent Meessen’s project One.Two.Three which featured for Belgian Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2015.

“Samson’s upcoming shows include a solo exhibition at Modern Art Oxford, Athens Biennale 2021, and ARS22 at Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki, Finland. 

Kambalu has featured in ‘All the World’s Futures’, the 56th Venice Biennale and his work has been included in numerous international exhibitions and projects including the Dakar Biennial (2014 and 2016); Tokyo International Art Festival (2009) and Liverpool Biennial (2004 and 2016).

He has had solo exhibitions at PEER Gallery, London; Mu.ZEE, Ostend, Belgium, (2020); Whitechapel Gallery, London; Logan Centre, Chicago; NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, Miami; Kunsthalle Mainz, Germany, (2016).

Eisenman’s artwork is described as exploring the human condition in her critically acclaimed, wide-ranging prints, paintings, drawings, and mixed-media works. Influenced by the expressionists and impressionists as well as figures such as Pablo Picasso.

“Her works are populated with emotionally resonant, cartoonish figures, formed out of exaggerated, painterly lines and intense colours. Having established herself as a painter, Nicole Eisenman has also expanded her practice into the 3-D.”

Her work was included in both the 2019 Venice Biennale and the 2019 Whitney Biennial.

Eisenman is a MacArthur Foundation Fellow and was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2018.

Ghanaian Mahama uses the transformation of materials to explore themes of commodity, migration, globalisation and economic exchange and often using found materials and giving them new meaning.

“Frequently working collaboration with others, his large-scale installations employ materials gathered from urban environments, such as remnants of wood, or jute sacks which are stitched together and draped over architectural structures,” says london.go.uk.

Mahama lives and works in Accra, Kumasi and Tamale and his work has appeared in many international exhibitions including NIRIN, 22nd Biennale of Sydney, Stellenbosch Triennale, Cape Town (2020); Future Genealogies, Tales From The Equatorial Line, 6th Lubumbashi Biennale, Democratic Republic of the Congo and others.

“Between 2019-20, Mahama opened the Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art (SCCA), and its sister organisation Red Clay, in the Northern Region of Ghana.”

Originally trained as a forensic pathologist Teresa Margolles has exhibited extensively as an artist for more than two decades, both in Latin America and abroad.

She represented Mexico at the 53rd Venice Biennale in with What Else Could We Talk About? and received a special jury mention for her work at the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019.

Margolles is reported to be a conceptual artist, photographer, videographer and performance artist.

“Her works investigate the social and aesthetic dimensions of conflict, creating sculptural installations, photographs, films, and performances imbued with material traces of death.

“The source of her work comes from morgues themselves, which she transforms into sensory experiences that provoke a feeling of memory to the audience.

“As an artist she researches the social causes and consequences of death. Her work defies normative boundaries to catch the viewers attention to invoke accountability.”

Paloma Varga Weisz works primarily as a sculptor and as a draughtswoman; producing intricate carvings and small scale, mythical watercolour works.

“Classically trained in Bavaria, Varga Weisz was taught traditional techniques of woodcarving, modelling and casting before attending art school in Düsseldorf in the 1990s.

“Varga Weisz’s handmade woodcarvings are heavily textured and tactile, and frequently probe traditional approaches towards display. Her figures, both sculptural and illustrated, are often laden with personal and collective motifs, where oddities of form are common fare: anthropomorphic figures, hybrid forms, or figures verging on the grotesque.

In 2017 Paloma Varga Weisz won Holbach-Award, in 2007 the Marianna-Werefkin Award, in 2004 the Art and Sponsorship Award and gained a Bremerhaven-Fellowship back in 2000. 

According to Wikipedia, The Fourth plinth was originally intended to hold an equestrian statue of William IV, but remained bare due to insufficient funds.

For over 150 years the fate of the plinth was debated; in 1998, the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce commissioned three contemporary sculptures to be displayed temporarily on the plinth.

Shortly afterwards, Chris Smith, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport commissioned Sir John Mortimer to seek opinions from public art commissioners, critics and members of the public as to the future of the plinth.

Mortimer’s final report recommended that the commissions remain a rolling programme of temporary artworks rather than settle permanently on one figure or idea to commemorate.

In 2003, the ownership of Trafalgar Square was transferred from Westminster City Council to the Mayor of London, marking the beginning of the Mayor of London’s Fourth Plinth Commission as it is now known.