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Womanhood celebrated through exhibition

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A NUMBER of artists have joined hands to celebrate womanhood and its values with an exhibition at the National Art Gallery of Zimbabwe dubbed Vatsvairi Vamakwara.

A NUMBER of artists have joined hands to celebrate womanhood and its values with an exhibition at the National Art Gallery of Zimbabwe dubbed Vatsvairi Vamakwara.

BY ARTS REPORTER

National Art Gallery of Zimbabwe
National Art Gallery of Zimbabwe

Curator Raphael Chikukwa said the exhibition, which will close on May 5, was conceived mainly from their permanent collection at the gallery to complement the “Dis(colour)ed Margins Exhibition co-Curated by Fadzai Muchemwa and Tandazani Dhlakama.

“In our Zimbabwean culture, women are important in every area of economy and many rituals. The role of a woman in most societies is still not valued and this exhibition shows the woman in different forms and postures,” Chikukwa said.

He said the exhibition brought together male and female artists whose works interrogate womanhood and its values through the use of various media.

“There is a Shona expression, musha mukadzi, which points to the importance of the woman in the home and Philimon Chipiro’s painting, African Home, shows this,” he said.

Chikukwa noted the significance of the works on exhibition, including renowned sculptor Tapfuma Gutsa’s mixed media sculpture, Woman of Society, Virginia Chihota’s print on fabriano paper depicting two church women proud of their uniform, Admire Kamudzengerere’s painting of two Muslim women entitled Goran Iran and Potency of Renewal by David Chinyama showing a pregnant as well as Jamila Hava’s display of a mother and her child on her veranda.

Chantal Moret Swiss artist who was resident at the gallery in 2015 has two works in the exhibition, which show Zimbabwean women carrying their children on their backs.

“The act of carrying children on the back by Zimbabwean women fascinated her (Moret) no end and is reflected in the work that she produced during her residency,” Chikukwa said.