Mukucha: An artist full of ingenuity

Dr Tony Monda  Art Zone
Clive Mukucha is a mid-career Zimbabwean artist whose body of artworks are illustrative of his resourceful ingenuity.  A regular participant in Gallery Delta’s found objects group shows; he is an artist who makes use of every object he collects, to create art. Alive to the riches of form, shape and texture in art, and in discarded consumer packaging containers and blessed with a hunter-gatherers instinct to stumble upon objects – he is able to turn the most mundane objects, disposed articles, plastic product containers, of our consumerist society into compelling works of art.

In the field of the arts, the physical nature of objects contributes substantially to their social meanings. Automotive lubricating oil containers, discarded typewriters and computer parts are converted into neo-tribal masks or mechanical looking personages.

Mukucha believes that the visual, tactile, and sensual dimensions of objects are critical to their interpretation and thus prefers to assemble his objects in their complete form. His sculptural imagery is derived from the very shape and form of these discarded objects.

Here, he converts the vestiges and seemingly redundant accruments of our commercial manufacturing industry into compelling works of art.

The bi-associative cognisance of visual metaphors is an unusual endowment that a few artists have. It is the power to bestow existence, modify and alter meaning in what seems like a commonplace and extraneous objects.

This gift is what Mukucha’s work thrives on. He takes as his starting point from the idea that objects both contributed to the formation of knowledge in the past and likewise contribute to our understanding of society today.

Mukucha was trained at the BAT Workshop School in Mbare. Some of his acrylic on paper works with their characteristic sculptural broad tactile strokes and mixed-media found object sculpture can be found at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe and various other art centres in Harare.
 Dr Tony Monda holds a PhD in Art Theory and Philosophy and a DBA (Doctorate of Business Administration) in Post-Colonial Heritage Studies. He is a writer, musician, art critic, practising artist and corporate image consultant.