Rehema Chachage was born in Dar es Salaam and is a visual artist working in performance, photography, video, sound and installations. She has a BA Fine Art from University of Cape Town (2009); and MA Contemporary Art Theory from Goldsmiths, University of London (2018).
Her studio practice is concerned with the processes of retelling and preserving what feminist scholars and activists have coined as (her)stories; using life histories of women and circumstances shaping their trajectories.
It draws from (and is informed by) the rich oral storytelling traditions of Tanzania and the power that this practice has had in establishing and maintaining a collective narrative on a diverse historical phenomenon. The oral storytelling traditions are mostly preserved by women and handed down across generations through stories, lullabies, performances, songs and dance some of which form part of the gradually diminishing rites of passage.
Chachage has been part of the following exhibitions: Converge at the RAW Spot Gallery during the Grahamstown Arts Festival (Grahamstown: 2018); Be Kind, Please Rewind at Gallery MOMO (Cape Town: 2017); THAT, AROUND WHICH THE UNIVERSE REVOLVES: On Rhythmanalysis of Memory, Times, Bodies in Space – A Collaboration of SAVVY Contemporary with FFT Düsseldorf (Düsseldorf:2017); Africana Womanism at Videozoom (Florence and Rome: 2017); African Spirituality at Calabar Gallery (New York: 2017); In the blink of an eye at Arthub Asia (Shanghai:2016); East Africa Focus at FNB Joburg Artfair (Johannesburg: 2016); When things fall apart: Critical voices on the radars at Trapholt Museum (Kolding: 2016); Kabbo ka muwala/The girl’s basket’, migration exhibition (Harare, Zimbabwe, Kampala, Uganda, Bremen & Germany: 2016); Consuming us, a special project curated for the Cape Town Artfair (Cape Town: 2016); amongst others. Chachage was part of the Dak’Art African Contemporary Art Biennale (Dakar: 2018) and Biennale de Casablanca (Casablanca: 2016).
Rehema Chachage’s works titled, Kwa Baba rithi undugu I and II (2010) are part of the screen takeover intervention for the Zeitz MOCAA exhibition, The Main Complaint (2018 – 2019).