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Timothy Akuda
Early this year the National Gallery of Zimbabwe will be staging a design exhibition that will focus on two areas, namely an expo and a curated show; the curated show will be of work by selected applicants and an expo of some of the work that was not selected for the show. This exhibition is dedicated to the celebration of Zimbabwean design. This exhibition hopes to create a platform on which designers can showcase their creative abilities.
It is an opportunity for the world to see what the nation has to offer in design. This includes, but is not limited to the following areas of design:
Product design
Furniture design
Architecture design
Textile design
Jewellery design
Fashion design
Costume design
Body Art design
Ceramic design
Handmade design
Digital design
The idea of the show is to move the concept of design beyond mere craft items and begin to interrogate the design that already exists with a view to introduce greater dynamism and competition.
The show is organised as an attempt to understand where Zimbabwe currently stands in terms of local design.
It is no secret that Zimbabwe has lagged behind in the area of viable design largely because there are few facilities dedicated to teaching and nurturing design skills.
In response to this the National Gallery School of Visual Art and Design recently introduced design to its curriculum as a way of cultivating the design skills and ultimately contributing to the growth of the design sector in the country.
The theme for this exhibition is “ZimbabweinDESIGN”. We are encouraging designers to introspect regarding their cultural identity.
We hope that, designers will examine the country’s heritage in order to reflect, remix, revise, reconstruct and reuse elements of Zimbabwean/ African culture in contemporary ways.
In addition, we hope that designers will explore the state of Zimbabwean design skills, content and quality with a view to encourage, to cross reference and to develop new synergies between art and design.
The National Gallery is expecting a diverse range of designs to be produced through this theme.
This is because artists will be using different social, historical and cultural lenses to introspect.
Contemporary designers will draw inspiration from this, extracting and adapting forms, embellishment and materials and subjecting them to their own imaginative and creative interrogation
The deadline for submissions is February 6, 2014. Applicants will be invited to participate in an exhibition that takes place from April 25 to mid-June, curated by Doreen Sibanda and Tandazani Dhlakama.
Interested artists should email their portfolios (with at least five images of current work), curriculum vitae and artist statement to email [email protected] to be considered.
Online Reporter