No Monument for the Fallen (Katuvangua Maendo), Otjozondjupa Region, Namibia, August 2012

In this work Katuvangua Maendo, great-granddaughter of Petrus Hiuii, looks out towards land where her people and the cattle of her nation once moved freely, and to the 'Kaiser Wilhelm' Mountain, where a battle was fought between the Ovaherero and Germans in January 1904. According to Katuvangua, whenever Ovaherero pass this mountain, they are expected to remain silent, so as to honour those who died.

Legacies of Whiteness, Windhoek, Namibia, 2012

Through performance interventions, the artist creates momentary fictions in key historical locations in order to critique legacies of whiteness and white (colonial) womanhood.

Possession (Uakondjisa Kakuekuee Mbari), Namib Desert, 2013

What Remains (Uakondjisa Kakuekuee Mbari), Swakopmund, 2013

Untitled (Uakondjisa Kakuekuee Mbari), Wlotzkasbaken, Namibia, 2012

Captivity, Namib Desert, 2013

Landscapes of Power (Katuvangua Maendo), Windhoek, Namibia, 2012

This photograph belongs to a larger ongoing series titled Changing Histories (2009–present), where the artist brings together photographs of diverse commemorative sites largely related to the Namibian-German War and colonial Genocide, primarily taken in Namibia, but also in Germany. Her project urges for a rethinking of some of these official memorial landscapes and discloses how these locations respond and refer to each other.

Remembering Those Who Built This Line (Uakondjisa Kakuekuee Mbari), Swakopmund, Namibia, August 2012

Uakondjisa Kakuekuee Mbari at the Swakopmund Railway Station. The first German Military Railway Brigade landed in Swakopmund in 1909. Ovaherero prisoners-of-war, including women and children, were used as labour. Prisoners-of-war were also deported to the hostile territory of Luderitz in southern Namibia. Many died of exhaustion in the labour camps.

The Passage, 2014

Embodying Landscapes

The Herero dress is a symbol of power, beauty and embodiment. It also demonstrates the complex relationship between German and Namibian colonial histories. After being invited to wear the Herero dress (which was originally introduced by missionaries and later appropriated and transformed by Herero women who still wear it today for special occasions), Brandt shared many hours of discussions with two Herero women, Uakondjisa Kakuekuee Mbari and Katuvangua Maendo. Through performance interventions in the landscape the artist, together with Mbari and Maendo, explore their diverse yet entangled inheritances and how these colonial spectres still haunt the present.