PressRelease
Dada Book Launch
UK book launch of biography of internationally celebrated Naro artist from
Botswana Coex’ae Qgam – known as Dada, by Ann Gollifer and Jenny Egner.
6.30 – 8.30 pm 30 September 2011
Bicha Gallery
7 Gabriel’s Wharf
South Bank
London SE1 9PP
020 7928 0083
info@bicha.co.uk
www.bicha.co.uk
I Don’t Know Why I Was Created. Dada - Coex Ae Qgam
by Ann Gollifer and Jenny Egner.
Published by Eggsson Books, Gaborone, Botswana. 2011.
This book is a tribute to Dada - Coex’ae Qgam, a Naro artist, story-teller and dancer from the Kuru
Art Project, D’Kar, Ghanzi District, Botswana.
Dada was an extraordinary woman, painter and printmaker. She died in 2008 at the age of 74. She
died knowing that Ann Gollifer and Jenny Egner would make good their promise to publish a book on
her life and work, a project that they have worked on together with Dada since 2002.
Ann Gollifer and Jenny Egner compiled and edited a series of conversations and interviews with Dada
and her community, that took place over a period of 6 years, with the publication of a book in mind.
The book documents important personal episodes in Dada’s life as well as her opinions on her work
as a painter and printmaker, her relationship with her friends and family and her precious memories
of times past. Memories including those when two tyre tracks in the sand could be interpreted as the
winding pathway of two massive snakes making their way in parallel through the bush that Dada knew
so well, before the advent of cars in her world.
It also documents her rise to fame as the first female artist in Botswana to represent her people
and country in Southern Africa, Europe, the United States of America and Japan. Dada became the
spokesperson and ambassador for her small art group from the kalahari desert and for all women
artists from marginalised communities across the globe. Her small voice has reached many corners of
our earth, celebrating tradition, cultural values and the great leap into a contemporary visual language
that we all must make to survive as potent, creative communicators, artists and human beings.
Bicha Gallery
7 Gabriel’s Wharf
South Bank
London SE1 9PP
020 7928 0083
info@bicha.co.uk
www.bicha.co.uk
Bicha Gallery represents living contemporary artists from the UK and around the world – working in sculpture,
ceramics, drawing, illustration, painting, photography, printmaking, etching and metal work.
For further information, text or images, please contact António Capelão.
Bicha Gallery, 7 Gabriel’s Wharf, 56 Upper Ground, South Bank, London SE1 9PP
T. +44 (0)20 7928 0083 | E. antonio@bicha.co.uk | www.bicha.co.uk
Opening Hours: Tuesday through Sunday from 11am to 7pm
Dada - Coex’ae Qgam Basarwa Food oil on canvas 1500 x 1000 mm 1992
Dada’s story is told in her own words, prints and paintings. For the first time in the Art History of
Botswana an attempt has been made to produce a definitive catalogue raisonné for an artist. The
book contains a catalogue of every print and many of the paintings that Dada created in her life as an
artist, from 1991 to 2008 when she died. All her exhibitions are also listed. The information contained
within this book will form the starting point for further study and appraisal of Dada’s work and also
that of her peers in the Kuru Art Project.
This unique and beautiful book will be relevant to a wide cross section of our community, on multiple
levels. It will be launched in London on Friday the 30th of September 2011 at the BICHA Gallery, 7
Gabriel’s Wharf, South Bank, London SE1 9PP. The fact that this date is also the day that Botswana
celebrates its 45th year of Independence is cause for celebration. It is apt that Dada, a small
Ncoakhoe woman from the Kalahari desert with an arresting voice and a big heart, should represent
Botswana on this special day.
The book will be launched in Gaborone, Botswana on the 24th September 2011, in Johannesburg,
South Africa in November, 2011 and in Maun, Botswana in December, 2011.
Ann Gollifer is a visual artist who has lived and worked in Botswana since 1985. Her practice is process
based, centred in the fields of painting, drawing, print making and photography. It is influenced by
music, film and dance and addresses the human condition. Ann has an MA in History of Art from
Edinburgh University. https://secure.bicha.co.uk/annmarygollifer/profile.html
Jenny Egner is an editor and primary school teacher who has lived and worked in Botswana for the
major part of her life. She holds a Bachelors degree from Tufts University, Boston and an MEd. from the
University of Pennsylvania. jenny@hermans.net
Bicha Gallery will simultaneously be exhibiting new work by Ann Mary Gollifer from her series
entitled Living on an Horizon. 6.30 – 8.30 pm 30 September 2011
This series of large format paintings deal with colour, space and expansiveness is an attempt to
capture the Botswana skies and Ann’s love affair with the horizon. Living on the horizon means
living in the past, in the present and in the future simultaneously. See bicha.co.uk for more details.