Some projects and events that inspire us at Whuda Marble Art
projects and Events
Roots - House Langheld
The mural at House Langheld was specifically designed to be integrated into the new house, which was designed by Winfried Holze, 2016 for Mr. Matthias Langheld, a South African, but originally from Berlin. Mr. Langheld has chosen Namibia to be his home country and domicile and therefor the idea ‘roots’. The mural starts at the right with just a chiseled rough pattern, slowly progressing into a growing number of roots ending in a thick bunch of roots beyond the end of the exposed concrete wall. It signifies the start of life for Mr. Langheld from nothing to settling in Namibia, i.e. rooting in a new environment and ending in space and a new future. The mural itself should be the first thing greeting the visitor and owner when approaching the house from a steep way up. It should also be visible, even if only in part, from the inside of the house to indicate its presence and be enjoyed as a work of art peeping through the window. The artwork was designed and crafted by Winfried Holze from Karibib white marble stone, specially selected from the quarry by Mr. Langheld.
Midgard Lodge entrance fountain
The creation of Earth
(Midgardr, Midjungards, Middangeard, Midgard, Midgardur, Midgard) (11th – 18th century Norse mythology)
In the beginning there was nothing but a wide yawning abyss called Ginnungagap. Here lived the all-powerful and mysterious being FIMBALTYR whom nobody has ever seen.He created two worlds which became the beginning of life: Muspelheim (world of fire) and Nifelheim (world of ice).When the rivers of these worlds collided and mixed the joetunn (giant) YMIR and the icy cow AUDHUMBLA were created. As Ymir drank the milk from Audhumbla she licked on a whitesalt stone pilar. She licked for three days until a man emerged from the stone who’s name was BURI. Buri then created a son named BEOR who became the father of three gods: ODIN, VILI and VE.When these gods were strong enough they killed Ymir. From his flesh they created dirt, from his bones and teeth they made rocks and stones, from his blood they made the rivers and lakes, his scull became the sky and his brains the clouds. Ymir’s eye-brows were used to create a wall that retained the ocean.The raised earth, rock and stone portion they called Midgard, but it was dry and surrounded completely by the ocean.
Next they created the sun and the moon. The warmth of the sun’s rays encouraged the growth of plant and animal life on Midgard. Finally they created human life. They found two trees, an ash and an elm, which they transformed into shapes similar to themselves. Odin gave them life and soul, Vili gave them mind and movement and Ve provided them with the ability to hear, see and speak. The gods named the man ASK and the woman EMBLA. Odin stretched out his hand over Midgard and spoke to the new creations:“ Look this is your home where you will live, were you will breed and tame animals, cultivate crops, eat the fruits from the trees and the fields, – you and your children and their children.“ Following this all future generations of humankind developed on Midgard.
The ten worlds according to Norse mythology:
Asgard – world of the AEsir (gods)
Alfheimr – world of the elves
Muspelheim – world of the primedial element of fire
Vanaheimer – world of the Vanir (gods)
Midgard – world of the humans
Joetunheimr – world of the joetnar (giants)
Niflheim – world of the primedial element of ice Helheim
Nidavellir– world of the dead
Svartalfaheim – world of the black elves
Ginnungagap – world of the stretched yawning emptiness home of Fimbaltyr
"What if" - Namibia Arts Association
Call out by the Namibian Arts Association, July 2019, to all visual artists with the theme “what if…” – “What if the sky was green or you were a woman and a man or you had wings or you could speak through your eyes or children could make rules of the desert cry or Windhoek were the gateway to Mars. What if …you could envision or dream another reality for our world, for yourself? What would it feel like?” ( text on NAA poster)
As our first collaborative work, i.e. K. Nagvee, H. Coetzee and W. Holze, we tinkered with the idea: “What if a stone could fly”. This resulted in the “Flying stone” sculpture. The sculpture also had a deeper meaning, in that it asked: What if all people in Namibia would work together? What would the outcome be and how would it make the country take off towards a better inclusive future. The sculpture made such an impact that it formed part of a Namibian exhibition at the Belgrade, Serbia, The Museum of African Art, in Nov 2020 under the theme: Reflect – Namibia after 30 years of independence. Here it was placed center stage of the entire exhibition. It was then subsequently purchased by the National Art Gallery of Namibia to form part of its permanent art collection.
A further development to this sculpture was that the insurance giant Sanlam, commissioned us to produce 3 more replicas in 3 different sizes, to be presented to their annual best insurance brokers for 2019.
'Whats Your Story" - National Art Gallery Namibia
October 2020 the National Art Gallery of Namibia announced an initiative: ‘what’s your story’, where artists were called upon to produce artworks in reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic. Amongst others, the artists were also encouraged to produce public artworks on public spaces. For this purpose the City of Windhoek generously offered to make the open areas around the new and old municipal building available.
For more info, read in the: Latest Works section above
2020 Bank Windhoek Triennal
Every three years Bank Windhoek promotes the arts with a Triennal. Out of 491 submissions all our submitted artworks formed part of the eventually 151 artworks selected to be presented. The ‘Content Woman’ sculpture by Kambezunda Ngavee won the 3rd prize in the 3 dimensional category.
