adminYeukai Karengezeka Arts Correspondent
Talented Chitungwiza-based sculptor Johnson Zunze has changed the face of art in Zimbabwe by turning trash into meaningful objects.
Zunze is hosting a solo exhibition dubbed “Zunze’s Kingdom” which has 32 different pieces of artwork at Gallery Delta running until end of April.
The multi-award-winning artist collects garbage from streets and dumpsites in Chitungwiza, which under his hands turns into artistic and creative sculptures of birds and other animals.
Interestingly, each sculpture is implanted with things like used bottles, jar containers, plastics, wire and discarded surgical instruments.
He defined a section of his artwork as Garden of Eve, taken from the Bible in the Book of Genesis where there is an image of Eve, huge snake, forbidden fruit tree, birds and crocodiles among other things.
Other works on display include “Infested Mind”, “Apocalypse”, “Stray Dog”, City Blue and “Cohabitation”.
In an interview, Zunze said his body of work is inspired by his background.
“My work is derived from a craftwork background that is well-versed with memories of wire toy making from my childhood.
“My earlier works focused on wire only but in the more recent pieces I started adding elements of colour and mixture using bottles, rubber casings, synthetic leather and other objects weaving them in,” he said.
Speaking at the official opening held over the weekend, Swiss Agency for Development and Corporation (SDC) regional director Juliane Ineichen said the exhibition should inspire many to keep the environment clean.
“As seen through this exhibition Zunze’s artwork is designed to both educate and raise awareness.
“This should inspire us to take action in the fight to reduce our environmental impact and one to zero waste because he showed us that waste can be a resource that can be turned into something beautiful, rather than just a mounting problem in our communities,” she said.
Switzerland through SDC has been working with other regional partners like Kufunda Village and Uhuru Network in Zimbabwe to show how artists who transform waste objects into arts objects find a way to sustain themselves.
Zunze has been in the arts industry for 10 years and has participated in more than 10 exhibitions.
To date, he has bagged five National Arts Merit Awards (NAMA) gongs from 2009 to 2016 for the outstanding mixed media work. He has also won several awards in different exhibitions run locally.
Online Reporter