adminmulti-media artist left her homeland to embark on a new life in Tripoli, Libya, with her husband, where she has lived since January 2012.
Undaunted by the new experiences, she has found that her isolation provides inspiration for her art production.
“I had to illustrate the isolation in my works to be able to understand myself and to accommodate the new life around me. For the first time in my life, being in Libya made me understand the full meaning of the expression ‘Home is where your heart is’. It is in my work that I have the space and freedom to compliment, ask questions, give suggestions or offer solutions to life’s tribulations,” said Chihota.
She said her works are created from solitude and from genuinely heart-felt creative impulses. Artistic themes range from her life experiences, matrimonial expectations and cultural dislocation.
Her work is a language of invention and expression, whose power and source are closely inter-related with her. The artistry of her vision and accomplishment are inspirational. Despite her isolation, her art is not mired in the pieties of her cultural dislocation; in fact, the isolation gives it strength to acquire an independent artistic life of its own.
In years to come, this historical and social significance oeuvre of works may be more significant and have greater aesthetic value in the artist’s mature life. The loneliness and sensitivity captured in her works speaks to a larger audience and should be considered a positive and honest attribute of her work. There are in the works underlying contemporary ideas of women’s subjugation, yet she provides enough distance from the subject to be quietly and respectfully observed.
It is as if she has stepped out of herself, and is observing her life from a higher plain. The images also represent a sweeping critique of a young career woman’s expectation of married life in a different ethnicity. Her art is her cathartic way of self-realisation. Her work exudes a quiet intensity which will appeal mostly to similarly socially isolated women trying to make sense of their lives.
Born in Chitungwiza, on March 29 1983, Virginia completed her primary and secondary education at Chitungwiza schools, from where she proceeded to study art at the BAT Visual Arts Studios under the auspices of the National Art Gallery, where she attained a Certificate in Fine Art. In 2006 she completed her Diploma in Fine Art at the Harare Polytechnic.
In 2008 Chihota was attached to Greatmore Studios, Cape Town, on a three-month residency where she perfected her printmaking and drawing skills.
Today she uses allegorical subject matter to illustrate her philosophical questions on life and reconcile notions of right and wrong in our society, which she believes is fundamental, and generic to all human consciousness. Specialising in drawings and screen-printmaking she exhibits an unusual gift for placement and composition of her human forms – in foreshortened poses and gestures that infuse extra meaning to her art.
Her figure drawings and illustrations of a hessian rag doll character which appears in most of her work is perhaps a symbol of her alter ego. Here, in her works, each bone and line of both the human figure and mannequin are twisted or distorted to express a psychological state of mind.
The rag doll’s implied demeanour is a symbol representative of her own state of mind and her self-introspection. Given she is an artist working in isolation in Libya, outside of her milieu, she is able to examine herself, societal beliefs and religion from a bird’s-eye point of view.
Her drawings, prints and etchings reflect a fascination with passion and an eerie neurosis. Chihota, like many other Zimbabwean artists, prefers to use traditional occidental techniques of art making, such as drawing and screen printing.
She says: “As an artist I am keen to retain my own identity and continue expressing myself from a distance.
“When one is at home one takes their culture and identity for granted. At a distance you can inspect and examine merits of your own identity and culture, which gives you certain strength and distinguishes you as a Zimbabwean.”
She concludes: “Despite the fact that the world is moving with technology, handiwork and the manual creation of art is more fulfilling and is a testimony of the mark that I leave on this earth.”
She has recently shown her work at the Lyon Printmaking Biennale in France.
Online Reporter