Ex-Swamp

Africa is known for its bold, unapologetic use of colour. Stories are told in pigments, tones and hues; a kaleidoscope as diverse as the cultures and peoples of the continent. For the initiative Colours of Africa, a collaborative project with Google Arts & Culture, we asked 60 African creatives to capture the unique spirit of their country in a colour which represents home to them.

The projects they have created are personal and distinct stories of Africa, put into images, videos, texts and illustrations. Each artist has also attempted to articulate what being African means to their identity and view of the world.

Colour:Golden Glow
Country:Namibia

Artwork Rationale:

Ex-swamp

Sixty years ago, located in what is now the city centre of Windhoek, Namibia, the water from a natural mountain hot-spring trickled down and gathered in a luxuriant marshland. Stories from the 1940s still witness the nocturnal call of a thousand frogs. In the 1960s, the spring that fed the marshland was closed by the Apartheid administration due to urban development, and consequently the swamp dried out along with all the biodiversity – leaving behind a dry, dusty, hot sandpan which today is used as a taxi rank.

The plaque I created remembers the vanished swamp and all the biodiversity lost when the natural water source feeding it was closed – since then, the earth has lost at least seventy per cent of all its fauna and flora.

During the day, the colour of the ex-swamp site glitters in a dry beige (glittering due to the mica stone in the area) – at sunset, everything is covered in a golden glow – the brass material of the plaque tries to capture that.

What it means to be African

To be African: A Poem

Masked Weaver
Guineafowl
Frankolin
Pied Barbet
Monteiro’s Hornbill
Rosy-faced Lovebird
Rüppel’s Parrot
Crimson-breasted Shrike
Violet Woodhoopoe
Hoopoe
Laughing Dove
Black Throated Canary
Pintailed Whydah
Paradise Whydah
Shafttailed Whydah
Blue Waxbill
Blackcheecked Waxbill
Common Waxbill
Violeteared Waxbill
Red Bishop
Chestnut Weaver
Whitebrowed Sparrow Weaver
Scalyfeathered Finch
House Sparrow
Marico Sunbird
Black Sunbird
Scarletchested Sunbird
Paradise Flycatcher
Pririt Batis
Desert Cisticola
Titbabbler
Groundscraper Thrush
Redeyed Bulbul
Forktailed Drongo
Cape Wagtail
Cardinal Woodpecker
Bradfields Hornbill
Yellowbilled Hornbill
Damara Redbilled Hornbill
Lilacbreasted Roller
Purple Roller
Bluecheeked Bee-eater
Swallowtailed Bee-eater
Whitebacked Mousebird
Common Swift
Bradfield’s Swift
Spotted Eagle Owl
Grey Go-away-bird
Meyer’s Parrot
Speckled Pigeon

Biography

Namibian designer Frauke Stegmann is a graduate from the Royal College of Art in London. She runs her studio in Windhoek, Namibia and lectures at the University of Namibia.

Stegmann is best known for her detailed illustrations of birds and animals, and for her use of found materials in her work, which she layers and repositions to reframe the context of their origins. She has worked with many prestigious clients in fashion and design, including Design Museum London, Peter Saville, Eley Kishimoto, Miu Miu and Peter Jensen.

Creative Review UK nominated Stegmann as one of 10 Women to Watch and she was shortlisted for the British Arts Foundation Award for Design. She was also included in the Phaidon 100 Graphic Designers list, the I.D. 40 Global Designers list and D&AD New Generation of Designers list.