Pikicha opens with ‘Routes and Roots’

Arts Reporter

A new art space dubbed “Pikicha” located at Emagumeni Centre, Helensvale, Borrowdale, will be opening this month with an exhibition “Routes and Roots” as the first show.

The new art space has been put together as a co-working space to encourage and accommodate creatives to work in a shared environment. 

Curator Doreen Sibanda said “Pikicha” was enriched with ICT tools and surrounded by works of art practitioners that are active in the fine arts space.

“We hope that more young professionals will experience the work of different creatives in the community and begin to appreciate the kaleidoscope of visions and engagement that exists in the sector,” she said.

“Secondly, that the diversity of ideas, talent, experiences and perspectives will contribute to a new enlightenment about the important role that the arts play in all our lives and the way it enables us to make sense of a very complex and challenging world.”

Sibanda she said the exhibition will be hosted by two sisters whose works are depicted by societal settings.

“Our first show ‘Routes and Roots’ features the work of two very creative young women thus Tamary and Natasha Kudita, sisters who have both had the privilege to pursue the visual arts as their professions choice,” she said.

Sibanda said the Kudita sisters have emerged as formidable artists in their own right and it was clear that they both had a bright future.

“Not only are they professionally trained, but they exude creativity and engagement on a range of narratives that range from individual identity to the socially constructed world that impacts on African lives and realities,” she said.

She said Tamary specialises in photography.

“Photographic image making is the central focus of Tamary’s art practice and this has fuelled her interest in bygone eras, after learning through photographs that one of her grandmothers had met and married a Caucasian person years ago,” explained Sibanda.

She said that the images by the artist provided an insight into a past era that held fascination for the artist due to its proximity to her family. 

“When a local opportunity to study the work of the classical artist, Rembrandt arose, it served to strengthen her resolve to delve into identity generated through Western dress worn by women during past times,” said Sibanda.

“Her first photographic series explores Victorian dress appropriated to reflect African sensibilities both in terms of the style of clothing and the insertion of the black woman as the main protagonists.”

Tamary’s photographic images were selected as the winner of the 2021 Sony World Photography Award. 

Again, in her new context, Tamary’s Victorian-styled dresses created with African fabric acquire a new meaning that bring to the fore, travel, power, possession and how clothing can be linked to one’s identity while their influence speak to power relations.

She said Tamary sought to reconfigure the black female identity and accord it its rightful place with her artwork.

“Her Nineteenth century silhouette in modern day natural and urban settings, creates new ways of crafting a very nuanced narrative and new stories. In addition, she often juxtaposes the Victorian silhouette with typical traditional cultural objects that are used in everyday life in Africa,” she said.

Sibanda said this was the first exhibition in Zimbabwe to showcase the entire series.

“For Natasha, who is a recent graduate who majored in digital picture-making as well as painting and design, uses the new medium in conjunction with traditional drawing and painting techniques to achieve prints with lively and layered appeal,” said Sibanda.

“Additionally, she portrays a series of everyday African activities through the selection of soft and gentle harmonious colour palettes that belie the harsh survival realities of the worlds she depicts.”

Sibanda highlighted that Natasha presents her coloured prints that explore a semi abstract immediacy that is exciting and vibrant.

“She uses this to explore both heartwarming and distasteful content with equal boldness in terms of colour and marks,” she said.

“Her other body of work presents subtle and softer colour palettes that explore everyday activities of African living such as market scenes, bus ranks and rural social activities.”

Natasha’s practice seeks to present scenes from everyday life to reveal that beauty exists in the mundane and her work exists between the abstract and the representational.