PATIENCE MUSA
Close your eyes and think – Zimbabwe.
What visuals pop into your mind?
The name itself allows you to dream and picture a palace made of stone.
Depending on how creative you are, you can come up with so many visuals all flashing in your mind.
You can picture The Great Zimbabwe, the roaring Victoria Falls…the deep, dark and mysterious Zambezi river.
When I close my eyes and think Zimbabwe: I picture beautiful jacaranda lanes, rural bira celebration settings, children playing and dancing in light showers on their way home from school.
All these visuals have been put on canvas by artists over time and carved in stone or wood too. For a country as ours with so many picturesque moments we seem to see no value in our own art, our own expressions of art.
From our parents we learnt that when we have a home: we buy beds, sofas, a stove, fridge, tables, chairs, television, radio, carpets and all sorts of accessories.
For some of us, our parents even let us tag along as they shopped for furniture. Sadly, most of our parents do not see the value in purchasing art and they never experienced the pleasure of owning art pieces and being lost in them every time they set their eyes on them.
We do not have a culture of buying art pieces. We do not see the value in investing in paintings and sculptures.
How many homes have you been to and seen Zimbabwean art hanging on the walls?
What about cooperates?
How many businesses have Zimbabwean art hanging on the walls or a few sculptures decorating receptions and entrances?
Do we view original art as so much a luxury that most of us cannot afford, or do we just not see the value?
The value of our stories brought to life through paint, pencil, chalk, stone and even wood.
The beauty of freezing time and the pleasure of interpreting it however we choose. The joy in empowering an artist to dream more, create more and in turn inspire generations.
George Masarira an internationally celebrated artist based in Bulawayo believes art can create a lot of wealth if given the right value like South Africa has done.
At the moment most of his art finds homes outside the country with a very few Zimbabweans purchasing his art pieces.
That is the story of many Zimbabwean artists.
They struggle for years until they are ‘discovered’ by a foreign art collector, then we cry foul.
How can a foreigner come to a land and discover something we already had?
Simple, because we have it and we choose not to see its value and beauty.
It’s the ‘Victoria Falls complex’ for most if not all Zimbabwean artists.
Art is a powerful form of communication, bringing stories to life…our stories.
Long after our passing the art will live on and speak of how we lived, worked and loved.
Art speaks of our desires, dreams, sorrows, aspirations and successes. ‘Art has the power to capture the winds of change’.
All this beauty is put to canvas or sculptured in stone and we could easily have these pieces in our homes’ yet we do not.
We tend to prefer prints that have no value and that we cannot identify with.
A chat with sculpture Dominic Benhura confirmed that a lot of Zimbabwean art pieces are being purchased in Europe and America.
Currently one of his sculptures was purchased by the city of Carmel Indiana in USA.
He said “Zimbabweans’ do not have a culture of appreciating art.
It has to be taught in schools from primary school, the national school art competitions that used to be held need to be revived”
There are different ways we can start to support Zimbabwean art. It starts with taking our children to galleries encouraging exploring art in all the forms. Purchasing art pieces- investing in pieces whose visuals speak to us.
If you fail to find the pieces that you like, you can actually commission an art piece. Maybe you have some artistic ideas of your own approach an artist to put it to canvas.
Over a number of year’s the worth of artwork increases, so by purchasing an art piece from a not so popular artist now allows you to secure the art piece at a reasonable price and sell at her higher price when they make a name for themselves.
The executive director of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe Raphael Chikukwa believes “We need to grow the art ecosystem.
We do not have the culture of buying art pieces and hanging them in homes. International buyers mostly buy Zimbabwean art and there are a few local collectors’ but they are very few.
People need to be educated on the value of art. Thanks to the National Development strategy 1 things are about to change for Zimbabwean art.
Some local organisations are also beginning to see the value of Zimbabwean art too, the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe recently invested in local sculpture and this is just the beginning.”
The National Art Gallery will soon be launching a campaign for Zimbabwean arts emphasizing on the importance of growing the Zimbabwean art ecosystem.
So next time you want to give your home a fresh look, there may not be a need for you to buy a new couch or carpet.
All you may need is just to invest in a few original Zimbabwean art pieces.
