Female artists prove their mettle

the presence of their fostering visual arts icon, her ladyship Helen Lieros, in a current three-way themed art exhibition titled “3 Thoughts” at Gallery Delta Foundation for art and the humanities.
Such is the boisterous nature of the creative minds that an absolute rarity of a trio will have each individual working on her own theme of choice then merged into a single one for a show. The result is phenomenal as the ladies reveal some of their innermost concerns.
Virginia Chihota, a very respectful, calm, warm- hearted and soft-spoken dreadlocked lady whose character does not reveal the complexity of her creative mind has mixed media constructions and print work that reveal her “Patience”, her chosen theme.
Almost the entire body of her work in the exhibition has its own unique intricacies dominated by chromat black and titanium white, then a sudden solid crimson. She says patience carries a positive charge if we have it to the end.
Various promises request patience but while waiting, if there is silence, it creates confusion and uncertainty and mistakes are made.
She believes that patient people understand that what goes around comes around – no need to cut the circle to reach to the promise. When the time comes whatever was born with lack of patience does not stop the promise of patience from manifesting itself.
On the other hand, her closest friend and a lady of dreams, Portia Zvavahera, equally calm, soft and respectful strongly believes that people see their future through their dreams and her work is inspired by her dreams.
She says that in her dreams she is walking towards victory. On her way she is comforted by good things but in the battlefields of her dreams she is also confronted by the bad and victory will be the end of her battle.
There is something nightmarish about Portia.
Her theme “Walking in my Dreams” is portrayed by uncannily mediocre paintings and print-work suggesting insensibilities in two dimensions that is as amazing, in its way, as the artists are geniuses in many. She hopes that the victory will come soonest.
Finally, the icon herself, senior lady Helen Lieros, is worried about “Mankind Repeating History”.
She is concerned with the archetypal, which exists still in the passions of man, and the apocalypse. Myth, art and fact in the ancient Greek civilisation revealed the struggles of man. Now, as then, we are confronted by natural disasters, civil unrest, conflicts and wars, and the search for justice and peace. In reality these events become apocalyptic as predicted. Her thoughts are portrayed by archetypes in their battles, flights and migrations in their search for freedom and as related to the African continent.
l Stephen Garan’anga is an international fine art practitioner, independent art projects co-ordinator, chairperson of AfricanColours Artists, executive member Batapata International Artists’ Workshop, critical visual arts writer amongst other things. He can be contacted on email: [email protected]