When elephant dung speaks loud

Aptly titled The Family Scars, the exhibition is part of a bigger series where she has been exploring the concept of scars and so far, she has held two exhibitions, Beneath the Surface-Mapping the Scars of Colonialism and Scar Phases in Vienna, Austria and Kumasi, Ghana respectively. 

Family Scars currently on at Xenson’s Art Space is the third in the series, but besides these exhibitions, Deininger has a number of other exhibitions also taking place concurrently with this particular one.

According to a note by Piloya Irene, the exhibition curator, Family Scars explores the intersection of traditional materials and rituals through installations, objects and paintings. Materials such as elephant dung which serve as a metaphor for cultural, political and social dynamics of our identity. The works primarily involve assembling various objects that represent different cultures reflecting on Louise's deep interest in exploration of the material world. The kitenge fabrics and gloves made from barkcloth create a constellation that captures individuality and each piece creates a dialogue about the connection between our movements and adaptability to different cultural norms.

Deininger says that this particular exhibition is a tribute to her family and many of them are directly involved in putting it all together, sometimes even without knowing.

For instance, most of the works have face masks which during a talk she says are her parent’s faces and then their hands made out of backcloth sewed on her installation Kac that she says are palms of her family members.

“When our mother died, it was the first time all of us were in the same place after a very long time because many of us live in different parts of the world. That was the time I got their palm sketches,” she says.

But one of the most outstanding things about Deininger’s exhibition is the material she works with, kanga, the material, backcloth, teabags, sand from Northern Uganda, cowry shells and mache masks among other materials.

But the most outstanding, awkward and out of the box material she uses is elephant dung.

She says she had been using elephant dung in Vienna usually gotten from the zoo over there, while in Uganda, she wanted to get dung from elephants in Uganda thus had to work with a gamepark.

“The difference between working with elephant dung from the zoo in Vienna is that those elephants are fed on apples, their dung is soft compared to the ones here, it was almost a different experience but still came out right,” she says.

But there is more to the elephant dung than just being a material she uses, Deininger says that her ancestors, while finding their way, followed the trail of elephant dung.

This connection with elephant dung and the cultural importance make Deininger’s exhibition even deeper. But the little detail on many of the works and the kanga materials that exist as garnishes on her works are even deeper. Most of them are cloth pieces that belonged to her mother, which somehow completes the circle of her involving all her family members in this body of work, dead or alive.

But the most outstanding of the exhibition was Kac, an installation of a mosquito net with palms of her family members sewed to it. The installation is interactive; one can get into the hanging net, grab a pen, write something on paper, and drop it in a bag as an offering.

Outstanding

The most outstanding of the exhibition was Kac, an installation of a mosquito net with palms of her family members sewed to it. The installation is interactive; one can get into the hanging net, grab a pen, write something on paper, and drop it in a bag as an offering.