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We offer daily services and a cultural programme of talks, events and concerts. We seek to be a welcoming space for people to reflect, create and debate
Mon 13 Oct to Weds 12 Nov 2025
An exhibition of new work by Namibian artist Tuli Mekondjo, part of the Art in the Side Chapel series at St James’s.
Free – access during all church opening hours.
Saturday 6 September 1.10pm
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Tuli Mekondjo is exhibiting at St James’s as part of Art in the Side Chapel, a programme curated by the Revd Dr Ayla Lepine, Associate Rector at St James’s and an art and architecture historian in parallel to her role as a member of the clergy. These temporary exhibitions invite visitors to reflect on the transformative power of creativity and faith through the lens of intersectionality.
With an exhibition title in Oshiwambo, English and Finnish, Namibian artist Tuli Mekondjo focuses on social justice and spirituality as she examines the rise of missionary-led Christianity in northern Namibia during the late 19th century. In this process, Mekondjo asks broader, pressing questions about the relationships between colonialism, African spirituality and the need for healing and re-rooting among many African peoples, both on the continent and across the Diaspora.
This exhibition is presented in partnership with Hales Gallery, London/New York and Guns & Rain, Johannesburg.
Tuli Mekondjo collects historical photographs—sourced from books, public and personal archives, and postcards—which are then used as a starting point for the figures in the works. She reclaims imagery of local Namibians from the colonial and Apartheid periods of South West Africa, during both German and South African occupation in the 20th Century. The work becomes an homage to those figures, often women, preserving and honouring their memory. Mekondjo’s work brings to the fore colonial histories and their legacies, considering present echoes of the past. She threads together iconography of the earth and body with a spirituality influenced by Namibian heritage and its rituals.
Image: Nakambale Mission Station. Courtesy Nakambale Museum, Namibia
About Tuli Mekondjo
Tuli Mekondjo (b.1982 Angola) is primarily known for her mixed media and embroidered paintings. Mekondjo’s rigorous practice is a pursuit to connect with and honour her Namibian heritage. Her practice in both mixed media and performance navigates feelings of displacement, having spent her childhood in the refugee camps of Angola and Zambia during the Namibian War of Independence. Sensitive explorations of history and ancestry allow Mekondjo to address, question, and heal parts of this past, deftly weaving personal and collective trauma with beauty, nature and optimism.
Tuli Mekondjo lives and works in Windhoek, Namibia. Her most recent solo museal exhibition was presented over the summer of 2025 at Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland.
She is represented by Hales Gallery, London/NYC and Guns & Rain, Johannesburg.
