Art as an accessory for swagger

At the Gallery
Until recently or even in continuance to this precise moment, the art world has been regarded as something out of sight and out of mind by the common man and woman.
Art has been dubbed a preserve of the rich and a mural for the wealthy and the ownership of art tends to either be viewed as a bad debt or just pie in the sky in relation to utility and value addition.

One part of this thought pattern is true, the latter however is anything but fact; art is indeed value additive.

Enter the new wave of the commonly subscribed to performing arts; the mainstream message being all about success and money-bags, manors on the high-end and splurging for splurge’s sake.

It is this locally available message of the average and relatively better-off Zimbabwean’s pursuit of the good life and the individual’s evolution from urbane poverty to self-dependency that brings to question the level of sophistication that is entailed in the “Material Culture of Contemporary Zimbabwe”. Aside from wooden bead necklace donning Lotharios and scene stealing Prima-Donnas who make up the country’s stream of celebrated personalities, who really consumes art?

After thorough research and strenuous deduction an answer was found packed in the boardrooms of Samora Machel Avenue.

This is clearly a reference back to the fact mentioned before of the common man’s view of art being a preserve of individuals who believe the poverty datum line divides time zones between the 1st and the 3rd World and enrol their children in schools that offer Polo as an “O” Level Subject.

This view in all its truth falls short of one thing that is the Common Man can own the grandest work of Art and does not need their child to speak Polo fluently to buy Art!

Therein comes the performers; Hope Masike who is literally a work of art, Jah Prayzah’s guitar shaped deze (sound resonator for mbira).

Both artistes share a common factor in using their sound resonators as expressive tools in their form (Hope’s deze usually is in the form of a heart and is often bedazzled with amulets and lively colour) and this corresponds much to their identity and of course, to the identity of the artist who crafts these resonators.

Staying on music it is important to take note of the musician being a very astute collector of art. One of the most popular collectors is legendary thrash metal band Metallica’s drummer Lars Ulrich (surprisingly) housed an astonishing body of artworks among them works by prodigious artist Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Profit I which he then sold for a whopping $5 500 000 (art increases in value over time), Andy Warhol’s lithograph which his parents once owned and sold after their divorce. Ulrich traced down the buyers of the work and bought it back (art can be inherited) and Jean Dubuffet’s “Paris Montpamasse”.

All the work seems to have been acquired on the grounds of personal taste in relation to the works context.

More familiar is rap guru Jay Z’s interest in modern and contemporary art which has been a hallmark for much of the rapper’s lyrical content through his career.

On his recent album “Magna Carta Holy Grail” a song entitled “Picasso baby” is a homage to art with references to Jeff Koons, Mark Rothko, Jasper Johns and of course, Pablo Picasso. He doesn’t stop at that as included are institutions displaying works of art are thrown in the fray such as MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), the Tate Modern and events such as Art Basel. The Hip Hop culture is now faceted with an art circle that includes realistic painters such as KAI and Kehinde Wiley. Closer to home one envisions a vibrant arts scene as abroad; Franklin Dzingai’s pop art prints with celebrated personalities amongst them Chiwoniso Maraire and Pokello, Gresham Nyaude’s darkly comedic reflections on contemporary society, Portia Zvavahera’s harshly intriguing visual diary and Virginia Chihota’s interrogation of the female experience, does this work not present the context of the everyday struggles in Zimbabwean life?

If so why is there no interaction between the two branches of the arts with the stream of performers in the popular genres such as rap and Zim  dancehall flaunting their swagger of “making paper” and being “fresh” or “dope” alongside references to work by greats such as Akuda, Mukomberanwa, Nkomo, Mteki, Takawira, Munyaradzi and Baron just to impart a little sophistication to their style.

The same goes for film as art serves as a very important backdrop for plot, scene and the general effect of the visual experience on the viewer. What would the “Da Vinci Code” have been as a book or a film without the whole mythology constructed by Brown from conspiracy theories without the artwork of Leonardo da Vinci itself? Moreover it is often more believable to watch a scene in a film depicting a millionaire in the setting of an office with “Growth” by Brighton Sango in this character’s vicinity as it may visually provide the mindset and the orientations of the character and exude the power that needs to be projected by the director by providing an alternative property device to enhance the acting and the story.

There have been leanings to incorporating dance in art and vice versa such as Admire Kamudzengerere’s recent collaboration with a street performance troupe WTP at a recent exhibition opening in Harare.

The dance troupe used giant masks which were executed by Kamudzengerere and served as fitting devices to the exhibition’s theme.

As for the literary world and poetry, there have been frequent collaborations where book covers are often paintings and sculptures that are linked to the energy and title of the publication.

In all equality of the matter at hand it is true that many Zimbabwean artists are indeed bankable and the art world looks to the country in hope of finding the next best thing.

Judging from that it is horrendous that there is no knowledge that masters of art are being raised in Zimbabwe particularly by Zimbabweans themselves.

Alas this may be harboured by the lack of exposure for visual art in public spheres or perhaps by that rap song that is all about the money and the “swag” falling short of getting sophisticated enough to a point where the “baller” owns works by Benhura or Madamombe and brags about it without denting their street cred!

Obviously the remedy lies in more education.

Good art is intellectual property and requires intellectual engagement and any talk to the contrary is make belief whilst low end art is pole dancing and high end art is tracking relations between creative expression, context and credibility.

With these grounds established, where does the individual in search of art start?