adminStephen Garan’anga Visual Art
Multi media visual artist Munyaradzi Mazarire’s solo exhibition reveals his fascination with esoteric space and perspective, presenting illusions and subliminal constructions which dissolve the limitation of actual space and order. In a recent interview with him he stressed that how we conceive reality depends on what is offered by our natural environment as well as what artists prepare for our visual awareness. It offers an illusion space which fuses two and three dimensional reality. His intention is to create visual excitement through unique approaches to pictorial spaces to redefine how we see.
Some of his featured work include a series of “Wasted energy” I and II, a series of “Landscapes” I to IV, “Empty news”, “Identity” as series of IV, “Office”, “Re-Defining Space”, “Ndege yeMashanga”, “Unofficial Invitation” I and II to mention a few.
“Empty news” is constructed on a thin plywood board in the usage of various local daily and weekly discarded newspapers and shrewdly glued together. Hung a metre and half on a clean plain white wall, it gives an illusion of an aged life size wheelbarrow rapped with newspapers placed at a distance in the middle of a resettled farmer’s yard. The empty wheelbarrow piece barely three centimetres thick represents the falsehoods news that is frequently published by various print media houses according Munyaradzi.
Other pieces in similar making are the “Identity” series composing impressions of a pair of formal shirts and pants from afar that everybody locally wears bearing identities of other nations. The series brings to the fore the identity crises we have the former colonized countries especially here in Africa where we strive in every way to imitate the former colonial master’s world.
“Re-Defining Space” reveals the master illusionist’s draftsmanship skills in bringing the presence of natural three dimension while making it feel like it is appearing on two dimensional surface, challenging us to what we actual see as opposed to what we think we see.
Here he carves a fairly big ordinary table at linear perspective angles and placed it a few centimetres from a plain white wall.
Ahead of it up the wall is a constructed impression of another similar table appearing as if it is far in a distance presenting an illusion of two tables placed far apart at similar angles. The same impression is repeated on such pieces as the “Unofficial Invitation” series of two in which he constructed using dark wood for opened six pane and three pane house windows.
This show themed “Redefining Space” is another milestone exhibition for Munyaradzi who has featured in far too many group shows and the latest solo offering is a follow up to previous maiden show of year 2011 titled “Letter to God” that was hosted by the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Harare in which he was as interrogative as he captured our contemporaries’ quest for righteousness.
The body of work represented prayers by various religious or traditional societies. On huge wood carved envelops instead of addresses there were various extracts from Shona totems’ narratives from which the opening lines served as the titles of the respective works.
They included “VanaMakwiramiti”, “VanaTateguru”, “VanaNyamushavi”, “VanaChipungu”, “VanaSvosvaNepasi”, “VanaMaerera”, “Madzisahwira”, “Bira”, “The Sermon”, “Quest for Righteousness”, “Chipositori” and “Nheuro”.
For the show he said the seeking of purity to the Lord is characterised by religious and traditional diversity that has continually inspired many to redefine their identities to match the ever changing times and become acceptable for peace, love and harmony to prevail.
The belief is that there is a supreme spiritual being that created the earth and all its content and that there is life after death enable good morals values to prevail. Munyaradzi’s current exhibition resulted for a three months national artist-in-residence programme that was hosted by Dzimbanhete Arts Interactions (DAI) Trust in the final quarter of year 2014. Since their re-launch in July 2014, Dzimbanhete Arts Interactions (DAI)
Trust has been a vibrant cultural space to be with the unleashing of various activities which include the national artist-in-residence programme, art exhibitions in their Gallery and numerous traditional Mbira music extravaganzas.
The artists’ resource centre located about 23km from Harare’s city centre between the Lion Cheetah Park and the Snake World along the Harare – Bulawayo highway exposed Mazarire to various cultural activities that he also assisted in coordinating, inspiring him to create a phenomenal body of work in the peaceful environment of thick brush on the foot of rocky mountains that enchants nature. Dzimbanhete Arts Interactions’ remarkable half year will not have been the same without Munyaradzi’s input especially on his “Redefining Space” show.
Online Reporter