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Kudzanai Chiurai - award winning Zimbabwean Artist
Africa Today
May 2004

http://www.zuvagallery.com/reviewkc1.htm

Doing it his own way
Kudzanai Chiurai, award winning Zimbabwean Artist, presents a collection of artworks pertinent to the current political debate in his country
By Bunmi Akpata-Ohohe

Biography

The Brixton Art Gallery in Brixton, southwest London, played host to a new exhibition titled The Revolution Will Be Televised: A Zimbabwean Story, by award winning Zimbabwean artist Kudzanai Chiurai. The exhibition, which ran from February 20 - April 23 showed that the battle for justice and freedom in Africa continues. Although art in itself can be revolutionary, a school of thought believes no reproduction of paintings by anyone can give a true insight into the extraordinary news stories coming out of President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe or the suffering of the African people.

Speaking before the opening of his collection of astounding protest works that are outsized unsentimental drawings, paintings and texts of contemporary presentation, Kudzanai Chiurai, who's only 22, says: "In Zimbabwe they call me Born Free - Zimbabwe's independence generation. I was born a year after Zimbabwe won its independence following 15 years of war against white minority rule. The new Zimbabwe was celebrated around the world and gave hope to our brothers and sisters struggling for a free South Africa. White rule came to an end in southern Africa but Africans in the region are still enslaved by poverty and lack of opportunity. I am the first black student to study art at Pretoria University, I can see the massive inequality that still exists in this region, be it racial or ethnic, it's all there."

Kudzanai states further: "There has been no correction to transcend the past. The past is used to manipulate the present. The works attempt to break the silence between black and white and establish a dialogue that makes us aware that we are both victims of the past and architects of the future." He continues: "My exhibition is a protest - the ambitions, the ideals of the Zimbabwean liberation movement have been betrayed. My generation has grown up into a society where there are no jobs; our education opportunities are fast disappearing and we cannot get proper health care facilities. Many of those who led the Zimbabwe's liberation struggle have stolen the country's wealth and destroyed our birthright. Those who fought against white dictatorship have become dictators themselves."

Public art has a vital function in nourishing our imagination, and it works most excitingly in unlikely contexts. Kudzanai's opening work at the Brixton Gallery does this. It's a photograph devoted to this exciting wave of media and the public insatiable appetite for news and coverage of any event now seen by some as a rebellious act. The Zimbabwean regime has continued to stifle press freedom, closing newspapers like The Daily News. Second painting; big charcoal wallpaper and spray-painting, with the words I am proudly African are you??? to greet you. On the next wall, is an oversized painting titled Presidential Wallpaper - wallpaper and spray painting of Robert Mugabe's head on fire. In this comic painting, the president's face is red and on fire as his head. This painting conveys the transition that has taken place in Mugabe's persona - a former freedom fighter turned dictator. And these days he rules his domain with an iron fist.

There are seven drawings and two photographs in total, all depicting Mugabe in one guise or the other as a dictator with his people around him all looking powerless and dejected. They really are the most thought provoking works of art to come out of southern Africa for a while now.

An interesting point is that the drawings themselves are so uncomplicated, and the first question you want to ask is, "just how long did they take to complete?"
Chiurai: It took me some eight months. I worked with my fellow BA, Fine Arts classmates in collaboration with the inner-city people.

Africa Today: How did this all begin and when did you first gain critical acclaim?
Chiurai: It started last year with my first solo exhibition in South Africa, also called: The Revolution Will Be Televised, and another exhibition: The Revolution Has Begun. They were well received. I then went on to work in collaboration with inner-city communities on social and cultural conflict of a post apartheid country and how it has affected the ordinary person who cannot speak for himself or herself.

Now, for being noticed, I first gained critical acclaim in my first year as a Fine Arts student at the University of Pretoria where I was honoured with The Most Promising Student Award by the University. They encouraged me to enter two high profile exhibitions. This solo exhibition here in London, is the highlight so far. It shows that twenty years after the end of the liberation wars, the struggle for dignity and opportunity in Zimbabwe continues.

Africa Today: What first inspired you?
Chiurai: Many things have inspired me. I am from Zimbabwe. So Zimbabwe's issues first, then my personal battles with politics and my culture. I then decided it is about time I put all in drawings that will capture my identity, my political conflicts and that of my people. I want to draw attention by means of art to the turmoil going on in my country. My next project is going to be on HIV/Aids that is ravaging southern Africa.

Africa Today: Are you afraid of being judged?
Chiurai: I am not afraid of being judged, although I'm getting better at handling the notion of being misunderstood. These are the expressions of my politics. They can be someone else's politics too or not but they are open to interpretation. They are free to judge. Contemporary artwork leaves the interpretation up to the individual not as one imposed on another person. I really would like to mount an exhibition about something else apart from politics and Zimbabwe, I really would, but living in South Africa, it's very difficult to avoid the mayhem going on in Zimbabwe. I must stress here that I am not in exile in South Africa.

Africa Today: What do you say to those who say that art protest exhibitions or protest artworks are all pretentious twaddle?
Chiurai: I ask: 'what have they done?' I cut out all these negatives and hand over my work to the general public. That is why I am exhibiting in Brixton; it also a social awareness exhibition. My aim is for young people and even the old to realise that they too can do something to protest in a peaceful manner against human rights abuses. Some critics would say my exhibitions are not a protest because I am not on the streets with placards. So be it. I am making through my art the issue of Zimbabwe topical and adding to the current political debate. Although I live in South Africa, I was born in Zimbabwe, I am lucky I can draw and my work has achieved critical acclaim in South Africa and Europe, but what is more important about my work is that I am able to highlight injustice and atrocities in my country. It is to be hoped that it will change perceptions, or at least get people talking more about what is happening - and how bombs and bullets are not necessarily the answer.

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