Kamudzengerere empowers others to explore their own voices

MANY Zimbabweans view art as a luxury object to be purchased by rich people with too much money. 

Admire Kamudzengerere's latest exhibition at National Gallery of Zimbabwe (NGZ) reasserts the role of art as a tool for social change. 

His work bears testament to the awakening and redemptive power of visual art.

The exhibition, titled Our Fathers Inheritance Doesn’t Allow Us to Sleep, sounds like something that someone with a tremendous sense of responsibility would say. 

The show reveals the artist’s robust understanding of African beliefs. 

Resolutely, Kamudzengerere stands like Chinua Achebes’ Okonwo as he refuses to be separated from his ancestry and their history.

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Guest of honour Stephane Ray, ambassador of Switzerland to Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi, succinctly sums up what the artist has accomplished. 

“Through his work, Admire challenges, questions and ultimately empowers others to explore their own voices,” he says.

The work in the exhibition is not didactic and, therefore, accommodates different points of view. 

Just as Raphael Chikukwa, executive director for NGZ, takes a de-colonial perspective when he comments during his opening speech: “From how I understand it, Our father’s inheritance doesn’t allow us to sleep looks at our colonial inheritance.” 

He expands his view by mentioning economic practices in post-colonial African countries with regard to the land issue.

Mufaro Shoko, a young female member of the audience and budding visual art enthusiast, observes with empathy that the artwork titled Muchatuta seems to portray a woman who is in an abusive relationship. 

She suggests that the half-naked woman is attempting to escape during the night as several dogs bark at her. 

“I feel sad for a fellow woman,” the young lady concludes.

Writer and poet Ruvimbo Martha Jeche reflecting on a piece titled Kubvunzira comments: “Life throws people into situations that make us doubt the existence of God and the meaning of life. But the answers can be found when we trace our roots and Kubvunzira is the way.” 

The piece shows three people seated in front of an obscure dreadlocked shamanic figure. 

A gourd, clay pot and bowls in the foreground depict a typical set-up for traditional spiritual consultations. 

Jeche also interestingly suggests that the shaman may be a proxy for the artist.

Mbira musician Smangaliso Mtize picked out Mami Wata as the piece that made the strongest impression on her. 

She said she didn’t have to read the title of the work or analyse it to feel its impact. 

Her visceral response speaks to a metaphysical connection with the artwork. 

Mtize points to the predominance of water in the painting as a symbol for spiritualism and suggesting that: “In water, you see so many things, water can heal and give us powers.”

An unfortunate exclusion is the work featured in the catalogue with the title Huku Yechirango.

The title has so many meanings. 

Traditionally, it is a chicken that is given as a requirement of etiquette. 

Usually, it is cooked and served in full to one for whom the custom is required. 

In this exhibition, the image depicting a domestic fowl harkens back to Kamudzengerere’s much earlier work where the cockerel featured prominently.

It can be read as the artist symbolically paying homage to those who supported him at that stage of his career. 

In the context of the current exhibition, it may be taken as a reminder that paying homage where it is due is part of one’s inheritance.

Curator for the exhibition, Fadzai Muchemwa (curator for contemporary art at NGZ), says she loves printmaking as a predominant medium used by Kamudzengerere and others such as Chiko Chazunguza and Franklyn Dzingai.

She adds: “It’s easy to make multiples as posters and T-shirts. It allows unique prints as well as multiplicity.”

The element of replication serves Kamudzengerere well as he creates a series of pieces with a similar theme such as Spirit in the Forest numbered from I to IV, Gomo Rinoyera, I to IV, Madhora Akabvaruka, which is serialised up to XV, and Kuvheneka I to III.

There is a clear message in the artists’ use of Shona titles such as Dzinza, Svikiro, Vashavi, which are vernacular words rooted in traditional religious rites. 

Where Tsoro, Pwere and Kutamba Kwepwere help in contextualising the work as rebuking of irreverence, playfulness, naiveté and ignorance associated with childhood and immaturity.

The depth of the Kamudzengerere’s titles is borne out of his layered work. 

The multiple processes applied result in shadowy animals, entranced figures, masked beings and transparent outlines of people in a ceremonial gathering that are sometimes scribbled over to near obscurity. 

As the viewer is drawn in, they cross a threshold beyond the mere mark on the canvas and discover a new awareness.

Identity has been at the core of Kamudzengerere’s themes, especially after the death of his father whose funeral he could not attend because he was inextricably tied up overseas. 

Different Moods, Identity and Changing Faces are engrossing installations and ambitious expositions on the concept of personhood. 

In the current exhibition, they can be seen as asserting African Ubuntu philosophy against Western individualism. 

The sub-theme of identity is supported by a video installation which shows a head shot of the artist, methodically painting his face white and a performance piece in lamentation of those who left the continent to seek a better life in the diaspora.

In his latest solo exhibition, it is easy for viewers to endear themselves to the artist and his work. 

Kamudzengerere does not attempt to lecture and preach or find fault with others.

He is simply reminding his peers to come back to their senses.