Embracing the connection between literature and other artistic disciplines, each edition of the Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards is built around a special animating concept. The concept’s spirit dictates the creative tone of each award season and is realised in the form of an official logo which is prominently displayed on all press and digital materials. The concept is finally translated into physical form and takes shape as special trophies which are awarded to each year’s winning literary artists.
This year’s commissioned artists are:
Clara Mupopiwa • Awards concept designer
Clara Mupopiwa is an award-winning multidisciplinary designer and educator from Namibia. She sees the world through a curious and creatives lens that encompasses colours, patterns, form, typography, textures, and systems. She is most thrilled when these come to life in her graphic design work. With a love for the African continent, she is confident about Africa’s contribution to the world of design. Her style is rooted in a self-proclaimed Afro-chic genre which she explores in various personal projects, building a meaningful, vibrant, and African-centred aesthetic narrative.
A graphic design lecturer at a local college in Namibia, Clara mentors talented young creatives pursuing design as a career path. She is passionate about skills transfer and mentorship and believes that building a strong force of purpose-driven, innovative youth will further nurture and advance the influence of a Namibian aesthetic, voice, and identity. Clara’s passion in the brand development industry has been recognized locally and regionally.
Erik Schnack • Awards trophy designer
Erik Schnack was born in Windhoek, Namibia. He is a Michaelis School of Fine Art graduate with a BA Hon (FA) specializing in sculpture. An established Namibian artist, Erik’s work ranges from sculpture, graphic art, animation, and installation art. He has participated in seven solo exhibitions, 21 group exhibitions over four decades in Namibia, South Africa, Australia, Italy, Germany, United States, Finland, and Serbia and has won over ten local and international awards and nominations.
Erik is well known for his mixed media collaborations featuring art installations that explore mechanical movement, automation, technology, and AI. Life-size organisms and creatures, organically shaped forms, and reliefs are regular features in his works which are handcrafted and delicately sewn together using discarded cans. In his themes he probes and questions the paradoxical relationship between technological advancement, humankind and nature, the environmental crisis, and the human as a cyborg. Since 1996 Erik has been an arts lecturer at the College of the Arts where he also acted as the Head of the Department of Visual Arts from 2008 to 2009.