RMA YAP 2025: Seeking by N’lamwai Chithambo
Seeking is a poetic meditation on longing, reflection, and the act of searching. N’lamwai Chithambo creates repetition by utilizing the same motifs such as: reaching hands, glowing clouds, and vast starry skies. These recurring motifs do not point us toward a final answer, but rather invite us into the beauty of the question itself. His work unfolds like fragments of a dream or a whispered prayer, asking us to pause, look closely, and wonder what it means to keep searching.
ACTIVITY
Using the selection of artworks provided, spend some time looking at them closely. Now, let’s use the See-Think-Wonder thinking routine to answer these questions:
See, Think, Wonder
Look closely at the work. What symbols and shapes stand out to you in N’lamwai’s images. Think about why he chose to work with these recurring images. Wonder how these images make you feel about your own search for meaning.
Think
Consider what the repeating images of stars, hands, and clouds might suggest. Reflect on why the artist might return to the same symbols again and again. Think about how seeking feels different from finding, and what it means to live inside the process of asking.
Image Gallery
“Negative Thoughts”
2023
70cm x 100cm
Oil on Canvas
In this work, N’lamwai reflects on a period marked by low self-esteem. A grey and faceless self-portrait embodies the sense of inner lack, contrasted sharply by two vivid and lifelike figures representing the high regard N’lamwai held for others in comparison to himself. The background imagery of a church and angel statue signifies his spiritual struggle, raising questions such as, “Am I a good enough Christian?”
Rivers of Vitiligo
2025
80cm x 60cm
Oil on Canvas
Also engaging with ideas of meaning and significance, this work focuses on physical appearance. The central figure, a portrait of N’lamwai’s friend Ndumiso Mabena, bears vitiligo marks depicted as flowing blue rivers across his face. These rivers cascade onto hands that also carry vitiligo, symbolizing movement and transformation. The imagery draws from Ndumiso’s own reflections that his vitiligo marks shift over time, flowing like living waters.
The Gathering
2024
80cm x 60cm
Oil on Canvas
This painting embodies N’lamwai’s belief that there is a world within each person. Stars, a recurring symbol in his work, represent meaning and significance. Here, a central figure finds his place among the vast stellar night sky, suggesting that the inner light or inner world carried within each individual holds deep importance.
Umuntu Wokuhamba useKhaya Lami I
2025
40cm x 30cm
Oil on Canvas
Inspired by a biblical scripture that calls for compassion toward foreigners, this painting envisions a utopian ideal where local South Africans extend care to foreign nationals. This is symbolized by Zulu beading around a wrist representing local identity, and a Malawian bird delicately held to signify the presence of the foreigner. Through this imagery, N’lamwai emphasizes empathy, hospitality, and shared humanity.
Home in the Enclave
2025
80cm x 60cm
Oil on Canvas
This painting explores the experience of expatriates finding joy and familiarity within an enclave. Set against the backdrop of Johannesburg, the work is distinguished by the recognizable cityscape that anchors the scene.
Write
After spending time in the exhibition, write a letter to yourself five years from now. Ask yourself what you will still be searching for, and what you hope to have found by then. Allow your letter to carry both longing and hope.
Image Gallery
Make
Create your own visual story that uses symbols of searching. You might work with stars, hands, pathways, or light. Arrange them into a sequence that maps your own journey of seeking. You may choose collage, drawing, or a short comic as your form of storytelling.