Sit with Me - The Diary of a Free Thinker: Charlene Komuntale

Sitting is a fundamental human action that signifies rest, reflection, and engagement with oneself and others.The simple act of sitting together can symbolize companionship, support, and the willingness to engage in conversation or connection. While sharing a space with her work, Charlene Komuntale invites us, quite literally as well as metaphorically, to sit with her in introspection and dialogue.  

The artworks on show wrap up the series 'Not Fragile', a nearly three-year long project that manifested in 29 digital paintings and two interactive installations. Like a personal diary, the series reflects the artist's engagements with dominant, male-centered perspectives on women's roles and supposedly nature-given capabilities and constraints attached to female bodies. Coming from both a very personal point of view, as well as inspired by experiences of the women surrounding her, she evaluates and re-examines ingrained beliefs, stereotypes, prejudices, and patriarchal narratives shaped by culture, religion, society and politics.

The artist suggests a shift in a perspective: To Charlene, the unfavorable binary idea of gender, which essentially attributes the notion of strength to masculinity and fragility to femininity, has to be questioned. In her work, she shows intimacy, tenderness, vulnerability, and female beauty that does not suggest fragility. Instead, it is related to strength and unapologetic confidence. 

As a ground for inquiry and interrogation, the artist extends a call for empathy, inclusion and understanding. We are invited to experience the transformative power of presence, and to take the time to see, listen and engage with existing power structures and to eventually step out of our comfort zones to reflect on our own biases. 

Curated by Lara Buchmann