When Faith Turns Into Art
PATIENCE MUSA
On 13 August 2025, the National Gallery of Zimbabwe opened its doors to a new light. Dotipaiwo Chiyedza, the first solo exhibition by artist Pardon Mapondera – a prayer, a question, and a mirror held up to a nation’s soul.
Mapondera, in a daring shift, turns to installation, transforming the familiar into the uncanny. He takes the condiment carafe—humble, ordinary, ever-present on our tables—and elevates it into a vessel of metaphor. In his hands, the everyday object becomes a lens through which we see the delicate yet contested dance between body and spirit.
His art pulses with the heartbeat of contemporary Zimbabwe, where faith is both anchor and storm. With over 84% of the population following Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity, Dotipaiwo Chiyedza reflects on the rise of spiritual intermediaries, the blossoming of new movements, and the weaving together of ancestral beliefs with modern creeds. It is a tapestry of tradition and transformation, a testament to the resilience of a people who seek light in many forms.
Mapondera does not shy away from the clash of ideologies—where sacred becomes spectacle, and custom meets charisma. His work is alive with the tensions of a generation negotiating inheritance and invention, “trad” values and “systemic fads,” revelation and doubt.
“Through his work, Mapondera reflects on his own lived experiences, his doubts, revelations, and moments of inner clarity, layering them with ancestral guidance and communal questioning,” explains curator Fadzai Veronica Muchemwa. Co-curator F. Zvikomborero Mandangu adds with finality: “Mapondera has created work about light and having the courage to seek it.”
Dotipaiwo Chiyedza is a plea for illumination in uncertain times, an invitation to step into a space where faith, art, and spirit collide. The exhibition runs until October, offering visitors not just a gallery experience but a journey into the metaphors of our collective becoming.
