Turning junk into masterpieces

causing a stir, people wondered what he was doing. 
His “Performance Piece” was making a commentary about real-life situations and the socio-economic environment of the time. Nyandoro’s “Performance Piece” offered a poignant counterpoint to the sense of rootlessness that pervades our contemporary consciousness and city environment.
Objects discarded in our everyday life, such as paper wrappings, empty plastic bottles and food cartons, are transmuted into works of art. The artist makes a social commentary on our throwaway society, while simultaneously recycling, cleaning up the environment. 
Nyandoro inscribes art in the day-to-day tasks of urban life by liberating it from its commoditisation and by reasserting art’s visionary quality and its capacity to mediate between urban chaos and man, by transforming present day social realities into a visual spectacle.
Perhaps more than anything else Nyandoro’s work takes the art to the people, and makes us rethink our real life situations and predicaments. Yet in his work, he gives the remnants of commerce and industry a new life, by resurrecting them as valuable works of art.
His conceptual art gives primacy to the idea over craftsmanship, and his creation of urban environmental “Performance Art”, which are usually temporary, aims to heighten awareness of our socio-economic relationships.
His documentation of live information highlights how our perception of life alters when it is presented to the audience as a “work of art”.
His performances create a live conduit which encourages the viewer to participate in the statement his work projects. Life becomes art, and art becomes life.
Born on February 16 1982, Nyandoro trained at Masvingo Polytechnic, Harare Polytechnic and Chinhoyi University of Technology.
While most Zimbabwean artists are known for their mythology-based art, Nyandoro’s work looks at our tangible present.
While as a student at the Harare Polytechnic, art lecturer, artist Chiko Chazunguza introduced Nyandoro and his contemporaries, Munya Mazarire, Portia Zvavahera and Virginia Chihota, to conceptual art and the creation of art out of objects found in everyday life.
This philosophy instilled in his student’s a high degree of perception and the notion of the artists making use of materials found in the urban environment.
In this case, due to the dire lack of arts materials in Zimbabwe, Nyandoro looks at city consumer remnants and the debris of commerce to produce his telling artwork.
His many awards includes: First Prize in the “Peace Through Unity in Diversity” Competition and Exhibition — Gallery Delta, 2007; Second Prize for Graphics  in “The Land Competition” and Exhibition — Gallery Delta, 2009; and two consolation prizes in “Don Ouixote, An African Perspective”, and  “Kristin Diehl” Competition and Exhibition, both Gallery Delta, 2009.
In 2012, Gareth Nyandoro was awarded a cash price of US$10 000 in the “Live and Direct” exhibition, conceived and curated by Tapfuma Gutsa for his thought-provoking work entitled “Recyclisation” — Hatina Vatengisi Vepanze” which was a witty caricature installation of down-town commerce in Harare.
Nyandoro’s innovative and provocative artworks encourage social engagement and create an enriching dialogue between tradition and modernity and between the city and its occupants.
l Dr Tony Monda holds a PhD in Post-Modern Art Theory and a Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) in Post-Colonial Art and Heritage Studies; Law and Art Diploma from Georgetown University, Washington, DC, and worked with the Washington Area Lawyers Association (WALA). He is also a practising artist, art critic, designer and Corporate Image Consultant