Performance
The Souls of White Folk
In the lecture performance The Souls of White Folk artist Martin White takes a deep dive into the history of Norway’s little known entanglement with Namibia. Spinning out from the story of the Namibia Association, Elverum’s humanitarian solidarity organisation, White uses live cinema to draw us into a maelstrom of industrial whaling, missionaries, colonisation and the Namibian independence movement.
The Souls of White Folk begins by deeply examining a specific case of solidarity from The Namibia Association in Elverum with Namibia’s independence organisation, the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO). Established in 1980, the Namibia Association went on to become one of the most important Non-Government Organisations to Namibian independence.
The context for this solidarity stretches back to 1842, when Hans Christian Knudsen, Norway’s first missionary to Africa, travelled as a representative of the German Rhenish Mission Society to Namibia. The Rhenish missionaries in Namibia paved the way for the German colonisation of Namibia between 1884 and 1915 during which time the Second Reich executed a genocide of the people of Namibia. In the late 19th Century, Norway was a pioneer of industrial whaling, which, in the 1930s brought Norwegian industry to the coast of Namibia, nearly hunting whales to extinction in Namibian waters.
Performing the archive, The Souls of White Folk takes us from the prosaic and familiar to the performative, cinematic, self-reflexive and poetic.
Martin White
Martin White was born on unceded Gadigal and Dharug lands in Sydney, Australia.
White’s work often deals with complex and sprawling legacies–material legacies, but also political, social, ideological, and cultural legacies.
Recent exhibitions include Oslo Kunstforening (2019), Høstutstillingen (2021), UKS (2023), KHÅK (2024) and Coast Contemporary (2025). White is a current artist in residence at WIELS Contemporary Art Centre in Brussels and is a current PhD candidate at the Art Academy of the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO). Prior to studying visual art he worked in community arts, as a theatre director and in film and television. In addition to his artistic practice White teaches, works as a researcher, and writes.