admindedication to her intended goals has enabled her to excel as an academic making her artistic career one out of the ordinary. Such has led her to assume the distinguishable row model artist status not only for young and upcoming female artists, but to the nation’s artistic community as a whole.
Her current multimedia solo art exhibition titled “Revelations”, which has just opened at the Alliance Française is a high magnitude show that reveals the yield of nurtured talent.
Doris was born in Mutoko in the 1970s and enrolled at the BAT Visual Arts Studios of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in the mid-1990s after having studied and enjoyed art at Mabelreign Girls’ High School in Harare.
At the BAT Visual Arts Studios she was a workhorse who ventured and conquered both metal sculpture and various two-dimensional media to become a professional exhibiting artist. She participated in numerous high-profile exhibitions which include the prestigious “Zimbabwe Heritage” exhibitions, Cottco, Live ‘N’ Direct, Berlin Walls Commemoration, to mention a few. Her undisputed highly expressional artworks have seen her travelling from Zambia to Mozambique, The Netherlands and other countries participating in international art workshops and exhibitions.
Kamupira is also a well-articulated leader who represented others at various fora at the same time being the “chief instructor” at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe’s Visual Arts School as well as being in her final year of fine arts degree program at Chinhoyi University of Technology.
In an exclusive interview about her new work at the official opening ceremony, Doris confirmed that her artwork takes a critical view of social, political, cultural and issues of her environment.
She said: “I think of my unfinished installations as inventories of fragments in objects, drawings, photographs, paintings and other inventions. They are improvisational sites in which the constructed and the ready-made are used to question our day-to-day life in Zimbabwe, making a universal approach on the language and knowledge of the world through art.
“As an artist my belief is that an artwork is always an unfinished work in progress and rather a means to pave way for future solutions. I try to use my work as a means for expressing my inner- most feelings and question situations where answers are supposed to be more developmental trends in dimensional changes.
“An artwork is suppose to be thought-provoking and challenging the reader as a living being on the uncomfortable edge of phenomena events. Different meaning should be an always new imaginative thought whenever you look at it as the viewer, which opens up your mind to be conveyed in visual new idea solutions.”
About her current ensemble she said: “In ‘Revelations’ I have sculptures that move when touched. My intention is to encourage viewer participation with my art and bring them closer to the maker of the work. This was achieved by adding motion to some of the artworks on display. I’m now exploring the art of motion. I’m adding life to the sculpture, when in motion they change in form and shape while at the same time producing sound. It’s like animation whereby drawings are converted into graphic motions,” she narrated.
In one of her showcased metal pieces titled “Dancing Head”, she welded together a vehicle bearing and a nut of the same circumference to create an impression of an ugly long face of unknown gender figure.
The back of the head is summed up by a small vehicle shock absorber spring that is welded to a thin wire spring attached to a heavy flat metal base. The head tilts away from the vertical axis due to the shear weight and tension applied to the miserable neck. The heard sways with the faintest of touches or stir of the air around it whilst paintings, photographs, dry point prints and multi- media express their own stories.
l Stephen Garan’anga is an international fine art practitioner, independent art projects co-ordinator, chairperson of AfricanColours Artists, critical visual arts writer amongst other things. He can be contacted on [email protected]
Kamupira’s show was supported by The Women’s Trust of Zimbabwe, Culture Fund of Zimbabwe Trust, Alliance Française, National Arts Council of Zimbabwe, and National Gallery of Zimbabwe. The exhibition will close its doors to the audience before the end of the month.
Stephen Garan’anga is an international fine art practitioner, independent art projects coordinator, chairperson of AfricanColours Artists, critical visual arts writer amongst other things.
[email protected]
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