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(from ARTTHROB, August 2004)

Calling a spade a spade: youth, audacity and bravery in the work of Zim painter Kudzanai Chiurai
by Robyn Sassen

The cliché that artists are generally understood, with their heightened sensitivities, to be prophets, rings with credibility in 'The Revolution will be Televised' an exhibition of new and recent work by Kudzanai Chiurai at Zuva Gallery.

Chiurai challenges categorisation on so many levels that he forces his audience to look at the work directly, and not through a veil of ideology: Zimbabwean by birth, but studying in South Africa; politically confrontational, but only 23 years old; a rugby player but a sensitive artist; born in 1981, the year of Zim's independence, but not free from the shackles of political turbulence and injustice. He also makes profoundly political work which is seductively beautiful to look at.

'The Revolution will be Televised' is this final year Tukkies student's third solo exhibition; the second was in London. All of which makes his presence in South Africa rather a coup.

Choosing not to specialise in his Fine Arts degree, Chiurai, who came to SA from Zimbabwe six years ago, is capitalising on and polishing the range of skills he is learning at Tukkies. This is no typical student show, however. He is articulate and hard-hitting in his visual critique of contemporary Zimbabwe. None of the issues are gauche or self-indulgent, and his drawing is reminiscent of Kentridge in its sophisticated descriptiveness and linear rawness.

Like Kentridge he confronts the slippery issues of complicity and political apathy with aggression, and like Kentridge his work is not prescriptive or simple. Unlike Kentridge, Chiurai lives on the cutting edge of the realities he confronts in his work, though.

He attributes influence to Basquiat, the only black Abstract Expressionist. Chiurai is a quietly spoken but not introspective guy and his dispossessed status as a Zimbabwean is central to the works. He enjoys the informal contemporary aspect of street culture, referring to graffiti as something that 'politicises space' and he sets up a dialogue in his large scale paintings, with graffiti through the use of stencils.

Chiurai proceeds fully aware of the danger he courts in reflecting on Mugabe in a demonic manner, with a characteristic Pop nuance - burning repetitively in hell, against a backdrop of sheep, and on t-shirts which brazenly declare him in as pejorative colours as possible. His London show is one thing, but the local one another - Zimbabwe is frighteningly close and people have been unceremoniously incarcerated for much less.

Chiurai resents contemporary radio station YFM defining black South Africans as a diluted version of their US counterparts. He condemns Y magazine for promoting cultures like hip-hop emptily - today's youth are caught in the immediacy of popular culture, but can't interrogate these imposed values. Chiurai strongly feels that Y is propaganda as insipient as it is dangerous to a sense of local identity among the youth. He comments bitingly on the limp-handed approach of local government to the situation in Zim.

The work itself fits snugly into the intimate space at Zuva. There are two large scale triptychs in oil on canvas and a couple of smaller panel works on paper, as well as t-shirts and bags which represent a snide but sophisticated comment on the nature of expensive art shows. You can come away from a great cultural experience like this with a beautiful t-shirt that offers strong political thrust, without being 'in yer face' or crude, and without dipping into your overdraft with a painting that might be too big for your house.

The imaging draws from Joburg's inner city, and with guttural mark making, sensitive use of colour and a very fine understanding of caricature and anatomy, Chiurai has realised a top class exhibition. It's only on relatively briefly, but is a very powerful insight into what makes a thinking Zimbabwean tick. The situation is rife and real and the immediacy of Chiurai's work is a wake up call to the powers that be.



(from This Day Newspaper, South Africa, August 3, 2004)

"Child of the Zimbabwean Revolution"

There's a new boy on the block and he is making himself heard everywhere but his birthplace. Zingi Mkefa appreciates what artist Kudzanai Chiurai has to say in colour.

Kudzanai Chiurai is a 23 year-old Zimbabwean-born visual artist. He moved to South Africa six years ago and made history in 2001 by being the first black student to enroll for a BA in Fine Arts at degree at the University of Pretoria. In 2003 the university identified him as the most promising student of the year. And since then Chiurai has had three solo exhibitions, the first in Pretoria last year entitled The Revolution Will be Televised. Earlier this year he exhibited to critical acclaim at London's Brixton Art Gallery with his more evolved exhibition The Revolution Has Begun. He recently returned to South Africa will his latest exhibition in tow, Correction: The Revolution Will be Televised. The show is on now at the Zuva Gallery, Melrose Arch in Johannesburg. Talking with Chiurai, the first thing you learn is that he was born in Zimbabwe in 1981, a year into the country's independence from British rule. As a child of this revolution Chiurai recalls statements like "freedom for all" and "we will not be another colony" and yet his experience in Zimbabwe has been one of country that has done little more than propagate a system that he says clearly has "failed his people". He uses oils, charcoal, spray paint and domestic wallpaper off-cuts to create graffiti-like canvases, which criticize the reality of living under one unified voice at the cost of one's individual voice. Chiurai's individual voice happens to rap a different rhyme to the one penned by Mugabe and is not deemed appropriate by the authorities for public consumption. As a result, Chiurai says: "I find it difficult to express myself in a place like Zimbabwe... I can't exhibit my work in my country. They've clamped down on anyone who speaks out against the government". His anger towards Mugabe's rule is represented in a work entitled Presidential Wallpaper. The piece features dismembered heads of Mugabe on fire, stenciled on a strip of Little Bo-peep sheep wallpaper. This exhibition is an interesting critique of the socio-political crisis in Zimbabwe that one would initially think has little bearing on our 10 years of democracy. But Chiurai pokes at our own often overly secure sensibilities with provocative works such as Y-Propaganda. Y- Propaganda is a painting of an unidentified black male topless figure in boxing shorts and boxing gloves. At the top of the image Chiurai has inscribed Y-Propaganda. The insignia speaks to the greater meaning of the work: is there a difference between the Zimbabwean-style propaganda that encourages people to speak with a pro-Mugabe voice and that propagated by the independent free-speaking radio station like Yfm. Yfm is a station which projects the archetypal young black hip-hop and kwaito diggers wearing baggy jeans and oversized t-shirts, or stilettoed girls with hoop ear-rings and Stoned Cherrie gear in all its programming. "Do I have to identify with that culture to listen to Yfm?" asks Chiurai. Perhaps not, Mr Chiurai. But you do have a point. Yfm is one example of many throughout the globe that sell more than just a product, but a lifestyle. Much to the credit of Chiurai and the young art buyers of Johannesburg, all the works in this exhibition were sold on opening night. Since opening at Zuva Gallery, Chiurai has had a few invitations to exhibit in galleries in the US, including a new gallery in Chicago that is looking to have his work as part of their launch exhibition later this year. Not bad for a young artist.



(from Sunday Independent Newspaper, South Africa, August 1, 2004)

The Revolution Will be Televised by Kudzi Chiurai is one of a series of works critical to the Zimbabwean regime. Chiurai, who is studying at the University of Pretoria, is regarded as one of southern Africa's top emerging artists. His work, which features cartoons of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, has been exhibited in London, where one critic, Bunmi Akpata-Ohohe, described it as "astounding". The African leg of this exhibition is on at Zuva Gallery in Johannesburg's Melrose Arch and runs until August 15.



(from The Mail and Guardian, Johannesburg, 30 July 2004)

Art Pick of the Week - Kudzanai Chiurai: The Revolution Will Be Televised, Zuva Gallery at Melrose Arch July 31 to August 15
By Kathryn Smith

Socially or politically motivated art practices are enjoying something of a resurgence - and a welcome face-lift from lefty-liberal to fresh and engaging. A scan of these very listings will reveal a host of shows that focus on the politics and use of urban public spaces and politico-cultural history. Political statements have for the most part made way for a culture of personal introspection at best, or navel-gazing, at worst. But what if you're a politically motivated, expatriate Zimbabwean watching your country collapse under despotic leadership?

Young artist Kudzanai Chiurai presents this exhibition, shown recently at the Brixton Art Gallery in London. Chiurai, who is apparently denied access back to Zimbabwe owing to the nature of his work, adopts a gritty visual language that owes much to graffiti, stenciling, Basquiat and frank political graphics, resulting in in-your-face work that is aesthetic as well as critically engaging. While Mugabe gets a deserved drubbing in this show, he also finds himself the subject of a desirable, limited edition t-shirt: the ultimate in protest-chic. Get one.



(From Africa Today, May 2004)

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.

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.



(from Art South Africa, Vol. 03, Issue 01, Spring 2004)

Kudzanai Chiurai at Zuva Gallery in Johannesburg

“It is said, in some African cultures, that one should not speak about the negative things occurring within a community. A leader’s indiscretions should not be brought to public attention, as such scrutiny might reflect negatively on the leader and, importantly, his community. It further goes that when he is a black leader, these indiscretions should especially not be aired as dirty laundry to a white audience, as this would perpetuate the colonial perception that black leaders tend to destroy their own communities when they assume positions of power. These constraints can pose elaborate problems, particularly if you are young Zimbabwean artist intent on making work interrogating the socio-political situation in your country.

Kudzanai Chiurai’s show The Revolution Will Be Televised consists of large-scale oil paintings on board and paper, sometimes layered with drawings, poetry (written by the artist), stenciled protest statements and graffiti, the later reminiscent of Basquiat. There is also a series of flaming head caricatures casting Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe as the devil. In a statement by the artist, Chiurai says that the historical past in his country is currently being “manipulated”, and that he aims to establish “dialogue that makes us aware that we are both victims of the past and architects of the future”. Give his age (he is still an art student), one might think that Chiurai’s ideal is naïve.

A product of the Born Free generation, a pejorative designation used to describe anyone born after Zimbabwe’s independence from white minority rule, Chiurai is not subservient to tradition. Instead he speaks freely of his disappointment in the leader of his country, the greed of Mugabe’s cabinet and his perception of Mugabe as a sell out. Chiurai also states that he is not afraid of being judged, and that he is “getting better at handling the notion of being misunderstood”.

Perhaps this rings true in the reaction the show elicited on a local Johannesburg youth radio station, Y-fm, who Chiurai insinuated into the show through his work Y Propaganda. The work depicts a silhouetted figure in boxing gloves and shorts with the legend “Y-Propaganda” stenciled on top. The letter Y duplicates the typeface used by Y-fm and sparked a militant reaction amongst the staff. When Chiurai was invited on air, ostensibly to speak about his show, his interviews raised questions about the credibility of his nationality and his lack of a Zimbabwean accent. Y Propaganda can be read as a critique of Y-fm’s perpetuation of a youth identity modeled on an American hip hop culture, and the implied risk thereof. Chiurai’s work, the context of the whole exhibition, points to one of the risks of ideology and subtle power relations, how this makes any country vulnerable to a loss of its national identity.

Interestingly, when interviewed on another radio station, a Zimbabwean caller accused the artist of not fulfilling the meaning his name carries. Kudzanai means respect in Shona. One wonders how the impact of making public statements against the regime has affected Chiurai. How have his subsequent interactions with other Zimbabweans living in South Africa been influenced by this exhibition? How many other Zimbabweans are willing to speak out about the injustices he confronts? These questions were further amplified after an encounter with an affluent middle-aged black man who came into the gallery to enquire about the cost of the works (which sold out on the opening night). At one point during his enquiry, the man remarked that Robert Mugabe was a “special man”. Curious, I asked what he meant by special, to which he abruptly, to which he abruptly replied: “If you don’t know the meaning of look it up in dictionary!”

What still resonates is the man’s response, which committed to neither a negative nor positive position on the show, and indeed Mugabe. It is easy to overlook the fact that Robert Mugabe was instrumental in instilling pride in the Zimbabwean people following the debasement of white minority rule. He is still an influential figure, despite the poverty and destitution the country finds itself in today. It is, however, telling that Chiurai’s action of “televising this revolution” has resulted in the denial of access or entry into the country of his birth.

- Thuthu Lesuthu

Zuva Gallery * Melrose Arch * The 14 High St. * Johannesburg 2076  
tel 011-684-1214 * johannesburg@zuvagallery.com

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