African dream fulfilled?

expressed in the exhibition — The African Dream Fulfilled — A tribute to Nikos Kazantzakis at Gallery Delta.
A selection of 14 artists has brought together 54 works of art that attest to the literature and writings of a Greek philosopher Nikos Kazantzakis (1883 – 1957).
Artists, Arthur Azevedo, Virginia Chihota, Masimba Hwati, Helen Lieros, Wallen Mapondera, Misheck Masamvu, Munyaradzi Mazariri, Munyaradzi Magorosa, Daryl Nero, Gareth Nyandoro, Thakor Patel, Greg Shaw, Cosmas Shiridzinomwa and Stephen Huntsman Williams, have created works with themes bound by socio-religious, socio-political and environmental topics that allude to their interpretations of freedom. Visual and aesthetic notions of freedom are discussed, dissected, painted, moulded and welded into resonating works of art.
Innovative assemblages from Masimba Hwati dominate the entrance of the exhibition. 
The work comprises a six-piece orchestra mbira, he titles “Rainmaker”. The giant mbira, with a circumference of eighty centimetres, alludes to a Zimbabwean divinity bowl and connotes the ceremonial ethos of the rainmaker timeously exhibited at the commencement of our rainy season. 
His other works comprise of circular leather hand fans that are both functional and aesthetic, realised with the ancient technique of pyrography on leather.
The artist, Hwati continues to excel in his rediscovery of ancient African techniques which he employs contemporaneously,- retaining a strong African aesthetic memory.
Arthur Azevedo’s molten-steel crucifixes derived from a moment in the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ. Here, the artist draws on the biblical quotation of the unrepentant thieves and murderers’ that stood at the foot of the crucifix taunting and verbally disgorging — “Save Yourself, Come Down from the Cross”. 
Greg Shaw’s digital drawings entitled “The Barefooted Journey”, “Bloodshed”, “Murder in the Village” and “Men Hunted by Men” bring a new electronic computerised aesthetic to Zimbabwean art .The works  are a departure from the traditional modes of expression, such as printmaking and painting.  They have the visual qualities of monotypes and retain the qualities of urgency found in Expressionism.
The iconography of the mask manifests in many works throughout the show. From Gareth Nyandoro’s contemporary pun “Zorba Ndiyani” — Who is Zorba, to Greg Shaw’s “The Demon and the Mask of Christ”, and Helen Lieros’ “Suspended Icon”, rendered in mixed media marouflage on canvas. These works of art recontextualises the African mask from ritual object to a universal metaphor for fear; a fear to face the meaning of life, and the meaning of freedom and existentialism.
Pertinent novel work assembled by Cosmas Shiridzinomwa comprising a table-tennis racquet with a mask painted on it are presented as a series of masks forebodingly entitled “Silenced”. The works ironically speak about defeat, humiliation and self-censorship; the antithesis of freedom.
The exhibition “The African Dream Fulfilled” was opened by Mr George Stassinakis, President of the International Society of Friends of Nikos Kazantzakis, Knight of the National Order of Merit, Ambassador of Hellenism and Culture.
For the uninitiated, Nikos Kazantzakis (1883 – 1957), born in Herakleion, on the Island of Crete, then part of the Ottoman Empire, studied law at Athens University (1902 – 1906), and work professionally as a journalist.
His first book “The Serpent and the Lilly” was a lyrical narrative influenced by D’Annunzio. He wrote several plays and was a well-travelled writer, who traversed Europe, Asia and the (former) USSR.
In 1908 he wrote his Doctoral Dissertation on Nietzsche as well as his first novel “Broken Souls”. He studied Buddhism in Vienna, and latter belonged to a group of radical intellectuals in Berlin. Here he began his great epic novel “The Odyssey” which he completed in 1938, comprising 33 333 lines.  He became a Minister without Portfolio in the Sofoulis Coalition Government, and worked briefly for Unesco. 
His best known novels include: “Zorba the Greek”, “The Fratricides”, “Christ Re-crucified”, “God’s Pauper”, “The Last Temptation”, and “Freedom and Death”. Some of which were made into epic films.
A dozen contemporary Zimbabwean artists were challenged to create artworks inspired by the titles and chapter headings of Kazantzakis’ literary works and draw subject matter from them in a Zimbabwean African context.
Patrons and arts aficionados were serenaded by Nic Malachia on a bizent — a Greek mandolin, who strummed traditional and contemporary Greek melodies, giving the exhibition an authentic Grecian ambiance. 
This artistic and experimental approach to the works of Kazantzakis, initiated by Zimbabwean artist Helen Lieros, is not known to have ever occurred before and perhaps will fulfil Kazantzakis dreams of Africa, a journey he had always hoped to take.
The exhibition is a cerebral, visual and ideological expose which gives art its social function, as a philosophical critique of life.

Dr Tony Monda holds a PhD. in Art Theory and Philosophy and a DBA (Doctorate of Business Administration) in Post-Colonial Heritage Studies. He is a writer, art critic, practising artist and Corporate Image Consultant.