Reviewed by Dr Tony Michel Monda
Zimbabwe is home to an energetic and thriving contemporary culture, manifest in the production of both performing and visual arts.
A positive transition in the visual arts of Zimbabwe in this post-COVID-19 era has notably been the opening of Pikicha Art Gallery, a private space in Emagumeni Complex, at the Helensvale shopping centre in Harare.
Pikicha Art Gallery is attracting a growing domestic patronage for visual and performing arts. This small but effective gallery space may eventually make the city a new Mecca for the Arts.
During the month of November Pikicha Art Gallery presented several interesting Afro-Pop art works by curator and artist Kuda Mangoma.
Bordering on the metaphysical, his paintings of animated mannequins in different postures and expressive body language call to mind Pinocchio, Lego or the Brickman in the old Fantastic Four, from the Marvel Comics series. Yet Mangoma’s painted portraits have a solitary, tangible presence and a quirky Afro- Zimbabwean twist.
Portrayed as impersonal personas, the characters depicted by the artist reveal a new way of thinking and cuts a new visual representation of the middle-class niche in a burgeoning Afro-urbanity in Zimbabwe. Interweaving between internationalism, Afro-pop and a Zimbabwean urban context, the artist’s works present an interesting hybridity reflective of the dual existence of the modern Zimbabwean youth.
Meaningful visual art expresses directly or indirectly, the depth and intellectual perspicacity of an artist and the state of society he lives in.
Filled with personal references gleaned from international pop icons such as Andy Warhol (1928-1987), and Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988), Mangoma’s artworks jolt Zimbabwean audiences out of the comfort zone cocoon of conventional local cultural art into a new Afro-urbanite zone.
A young, cosmopolitan and vibrant audience thronged the opening exhibition of curator-artist Kuda Mangoma. It was interesting to observe the youthful urban Zimbabwean society that has been exposed to mass-media, film, visual art, modern animation and other new-media cultural genres, currently represent a new generation of art patrons that are appreciating, consuming and supporting the visual arts and artists of their own age group.
Mangoma’s portfolio of works include paintings entitled: ‘The Seer’, ‘To be Overworked’, ‘Space that Matters’, ‘Overdrive’ and the quirky ‘Nobodies Nose’, with nose less people that are perhaps commenting on the pressures and local expectations of migrants from Zimbabwe – whom are often ridiculed as the “Nose Brigade” by indigenous people in the country.
Mangoma’s Afro-pop art strikes an uneasy balance between the immediacy of animated characters, the hasty urgency of local street graffiti and the quiet contemplations of verbal wit, parody and social satire in a Zimbabwean context.
His thematic concerns are personal and introspective, yet equally accessible to a wide indigenous young urban Zimbabwean audience as to the cosmopolitan crowd that thronged the opening night of the exhibition. The art of this young non-conformist painter is free from the intellectual and cultural concerns of traditional art practice characteristic of mainstream Zimbabwean art.
Issues that are revealed in Mangoma’s art works concern self–realisation, the restlessness of today’s youths and the mental anxiety of the uncertain futures that now beset the young Zimbabwean person that hopes to find their feet in a country where unemployment is an inevitable and inescapable reality for many. Devoting his entire energies to his work as a gallerist, curator and artist, Kuda Mangoma has opened a new and exciting chapter in Zimbabwe’s private art gallery circles, assembling provocative and contemplative art exhibitions in a variety of media from photography to paintings; and from fashion to comedy shows.
His solo exhibition is however unique. His figurative forms, with architectonic qualities reminiscent of Giorgio De Chirico’s (1888—1978), surrealist contemplations holler silently in one’s mind concerning the state of today’s society and the musings of the artist whilst he created his work. Perceived as a series in a style that is both human and mechanical, the young creative artist paints allegorical interpretations and monologues of the socio-economic and cultural forces currently shaping the lives of young urban Zimbabweans.
Modernist critics assert: “Pure art is what comes from the imagination or from an unconscious drive to depict society’s state of reality.” Some of Mangoma’s more poignant social commentaries in his art works are couched in humour with a biting irony or surreal absurdity simmering in the depths of the content.
Accompanied by quotations and wordplay that enhance the content and context of the imagery, the artist engages a multi-media approach to question existentially the meaning of life and to augment the meaning of his imagery.
In person, Kuda Mangoma is an outgoing, cheerful and sociable young man; perhaps even carefree and light-hearted, therefore nothing prepares one for the seemingly illusive, yet serious message behind the cartoon-like characters in his art works. The artist engages the viewer in subtle narratives
and monologues that interrogate the very nature of society and the youth living in a modern-age Zimbabwe today.
In Zimbabwe Afro-pop art has been gaining traction in the past decade. During the mid-2000s, momentum began to gather in the arts behind a new outlook and vision of a modernized urban
Zimbabwe in which the youth expressed and discoursed the challenging every day realities in an urban context in their visual art and music.
Bursting out of the framed seams of unpeopled landscapes, rural musings and the cultural constraints that define Shona sculpture, this new visual language represents the streets and peri-urban life in Zimbabwe that emerged at the height of socio-economic hardships and wide-spread emigration to Europe, the Americas and Australia.
Mangoma’s hard-edged paintings of animated portraiture and hand gestures of anonymous robotic figures in earth colours against backgrounds of primary colours are highly evocative and often introspective with an unspoken presence that questions the banality of everyday realities. The intent of Mangoma’s imagery is to represent the inner reflections of the urban Zimbabwean youth of today.
Referential meaning and symbolic gestures with hands, limbs and torsos abstracted from the human body communicate a universal and accessible body language. Here every canvas is loaded with wit, pun, satire and social criticism pertinent to the times.
In conclusion, this exhibition represents a promising picture of the future of art practice and patronage in Zimbabwe with the emergence of fruitful inspired visual art production and the requisite patronage from young, indigenous and upwardly mobile patrons.
The exhibition is a brave and understated glimpse into the soul of young Zimbabwean urbanites today – Pay Attention!
Dr. Tony Michel Zvimba Monda, PhD, DBA.
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