BY SHARON SIBINDI
GROWING up without a mother inspired Bulawayo visual artist George Masarira to create artwork that portrays how society undermines the importance of women.
Southern Eye Life & Style recently visited Studio 6 at the National Art Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo, where Masarira does his artwork.
“I’m working on a collection, where I want to be talking about women issues. What inspired me is that I grew up without a mother, and I have discovered that in this world, we have too many organisations around women,” he said.
The artist said the collection had inspired questions around women’s problems.
“So, I then developed work showing women hanged like clothes—one hanged by her shoulders, and the other hanged by her hair; the other hanged by her legs and the other by her hands,” he said.
“All these women I mentioned are hanging over a barbed wire. So it’s a piece which is very aggressive, and a very sensitive one. I am yet to see how it is going to communicate with me.”
Masarira said most men were fascinated by woman’s bodies, but hardly focused on their personalities.
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“In most cases, this is the only thing that we appreciate…. A lady can bath, be beautiful and all, but a man tends to look at the women’s body. We no longer look at the personality. So I am talking in a deeper perspective that in most cases, a woman’s body is what tends to attract people. I am just embracing how powerful women are and how influential they are to us as men,” said.
Masarira said women were very powerful, given the roles they played in society.
“Looking into our daily lives, our fathers go and work and we remain with mothers at home. They make sure they groom us into what we are today. So this collection is inspired by the idea of who a mother is, and how important she is. And if she can discover the power she has, she can change the world,” he said.
