A Global show returning home

For what is considered the Olympics of Art, the Venice Biennale is visited by droves of art lovers over a period of six months and last year’s edition witnessed up to 480 000 viewers.

The best contemporary art is put on show as artists, critics and scholars from all over the world converge upon this platform of history, art and culture that is Venice. This Encyclopedic city carried numerous stories and Zimbabwe’s was amongst that grand spiel. On the 28th of August “Dudziro: Interrogating the Visions of Religious Beliefs” makes its Zimbabwean debut at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Harare.

“Dudziro: Interrogating the Vision of Religious Beliefs” was the banner under which Visual Artists Voti Thebe, Virginia Chihota, Rashid Jogee, Portia Zvavahera and Michele Mathison worked under or around this concept with bodies of work which made varied yet distinct affirmations of the common spirit that resounded Zimbabwean outlook on socio-religious grounds. Beyond that the Zimbabwe Pavilion served as a first-hand account to a global community that is deeply imbued with the notion of Zimbabwe being some pariah settlement on the other side of the world, sadly guided by tabloid based information to a great extent but with the work that was on show at least 60 000 viewers came face to face with a representation of a cultured nation that interrogates their surroundings in an expressive way through art. Noteworthy is the body of work by Portia Zvavahera, a young artist who has been growing from strength to strength. One may find themselves deeply captivated by her vivid series questioning the dynamics of the syncretic faith practiced in Zimbabwe and in work such as Kuzviramba the viewer can collect hints at the plight of the individual within the religious fold.

The work is constituted of an incapacitated figure at an altar. What is moving about the work is the central blue draped figure’s calm but contorted nature, caged in a perspective aura before the cross and perhaps in the depths of a trance.

Arguably faith and identity are at conflict and one irks the most perilous of predicaments the figure finds herself in is possession. A mirror is held up to society and in the midst of it all it is the women who always suffer.

Zvavahera articulately addressed the “Dudziro” theme by creating art that provokes high levels of discernment and in October of 2013 she received the Tollman Prize, a South African award given out to individuals who create great work. Recently she was the recipient of the FNB art prize, becoming the second Zimbabwean to receive that allotment in its four year existence. As for the works of Michele Mathison shifts his focus to the agrarian plane were religion in tradition is represented by work. A focus on how the communal complex with regards to the timing of the agrarian calendar is used by the artist as a religious microcosm.

Mathison’s Ikhuba is a sculpture featuring 25 hoes melded together to bring the effect of motion to the viewer.
The metaphoric use of the hoe presents work as religion in the sense that it serves as a means to an end in the same light as prayer beads or a holy book serve as guides to spiritual enlightenment.

The hoe is a tool used at tilling, ploughing and weeding just as one book or prayer is applicable to a single observance of faith at a time. Fellowship is only found through the hoe and it can build and destroy relationships as it is the most valued implement in traditional beliefs.

One may look to the congregational setup of Nhimbe whereby the community approaches the cultivation experience in a cooperative mood; the welded hoes are rife with connotations of unity as they all strike the earth there is a guarantee that through this faith in work the tillers will surely persevere. This is a reflection on the Zimbabwean work ethic.

More than seven months after the Biennale’s closure, the National Gallery of Zimbabwe is proud to presents “Dudziro: Interrogating the Visions of Religious Beliefs” and all members of public are invited to view this prolific exhibition from a mix of established and upcoming Zimbabwean artists. The exhibition was commissioned by Doreen Sibanda and curated by Raphael Chikukwa.