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The magnificent costume of the Herero of Namibia, southern Africa, is a stark reminder of the country's tumultuous past. In the late 19th century, the influence of missionaries and traders in German Southwest Africa led to the adoption by the Herero of the European dress of the day. Over time, the voluminous gowns, completed by a cattle-horn-shaped headdress, came to represent the cultural identity of the Herero women. The men's ceremonial dress also harks back to colonial times: following the brutal war of 1904, the Herero adapted the uniforms of German soldiers for their own Otruppe ('troops') movement. In Conflict and Costume, acclaimed photographer Jim Naughten captures the colourful Herero attire in a series of spectacular portraits. Set against the Namibian landscape, these dramatic images show the striking costumes and their proud owners to full effect: men in elaborate, home-made paramilitary uniforms, and women in floor-length frocks with matching horns. Dr Lutz Marten contributes an insightful text that places the dress in its historical context.
Inspired by dioramas of wild flora and fauna found in natural history museums, Jim Naughten's digital reimaginations of a familiar yet alien world, explore the idea of wildlife becoming a lost fantasy. From orangutans swinging through psychedelic forests, to deer roaming pastel-hued canyons-Naughten's depictions of nature in an artificial color palette convey a distinct sense of dislocation and growing estrangement. His fantastical tableaus question our rose tinted image of the natural world that is largely fictional. In fact we are entering the Eremozoic-a term coined by biologist and writer E. O. Wilson to describe the current era of mass extinction triggered by human activity. Also referred to as The Age of Loneliness, the term alludes to the isolation that will follow the destruction of our deeply rooted relationships with other species.
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