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Byo visual artist ropes in dead wood

Life & Style
BULAWAYO visual artist Miranda Mathe and founder of Kopano Art Centre, an art school for people living with disabilities, says she has been challenged to think outside the box and do more experiments to avoid focusing on one form of art.

BY SHARON SIBINDI

BULAWAYO visual artist Miranda Mathe and founder of Kopano Art Centre, an art school for people living with disabilities, says she has been challenged to think outside the box and do more experiments to avoid focusing on one form of art.

Mathe’s remarks follows her recent participation at the Resident Retreat hosted by the National Gallery of Zimbabwe (NGZ) in Bulawayo in partnership with the embassy of Switzerland at Khami Lodge.

The retreat held under the climate change theme was aimed at broadening and sharpening artists’ creativity.

“I specialise in fabric mosaic (textiles) and definitely I will continue with my journey and research more which allows me to try new materials and stop being confined to one form of material, but be more experimental,” she said.

“From the retreat I wanted to create something that everyone can relate to, so I thought of creating a rug 50cm by 80cm each using the weaving method on the dead wood, a huge shift moving from textile to wood.”

Mathe said the retreat challenged her to jump out of the comfort zone and be as creative as possible using new materials.

“I learnt a lot from this retreat as it was a huge shift from my norm materials (fabric) to wood. It was quite interesting as a lot was learnt besides just picking wood, but to research more and be aware of things happening around you,” she said.

I chose dead wood because of its role in the environment and as a way of asking humans to see it beyond what they are used to seeing — firewood. I am trying to raise awareness on how we have damaged mother earth because of our human deeds and to give solutions on how to fix the damage or teach people how to recycle.”

She added: “I am still working on the exhibition and it is a very difficult process because I have to pick dead wood from the bush and the idea of picking is to not contribute to climate change by cutting down trees, but to utilise what has already fallen and died.”

“The rug must be 50cm by 80cm each because they have to be an installation of four  pieces. It was hard at first creating your image and trying to find yourself as well.”

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