Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. MANY religions and traditional customs have been perverted to treat the human body and its sexuality as a taboo subject.
The body is shamed as vulgar, sinful, impure and to be suppressed to elevate the spirit.
With his solo exhibition at First Floor Gallery (FFG), visual artist Again Isheanopa Chokuwamba wades into the cultural politics of bone, blood, and flesh with a measured naivety that makes everybody take notice.
Nudity has long been a part of Chukuwamba’s oeuvre, as revealed at his first solo exhibition at FFG in 2024, titled Drowning in My Senses.
Never shying away from his carnal thoughts, he describes his process as playing around with “elements that closely represent human ecology.”
The curator and co-founder of FFG, Valerie Kabov, has described the result as “poignant, joyous, uncertain”.
Since his debut solo exhibition, the artist has shown his work at many top shows, including FNB Art Joburg and Kuvhunura at The Blachère Foundation in Apt, France.
With his sophomore solo exhibition, the artist has come up with the title Kusvika Parizvino, which gives a nod to his fruitful career. The title suggests a journey and more importantly, continuity echoing Kabov’s introduction in 2024, where in referring to Chokuwamba, she wrote, “he is in no rush to achieve because he is in this for the long haul”.
Youthfulness works in Chokuwamba’s favour in his exploration of nature and how its elements interact with each other to facilitate unsuppressed carnal experiences. While his attention is trained on female subjects, the young artist’s male gaze becomes a process of settling into early adulthood.
Among his works on display, Vakorinde vekutanga interrogates intimacy in a marriage relationship. Without the giveaway title which references the Bible, a viewer may sense the tension in the bedroom setting where a woman is seated upright on a bed with her hands in her lap. A man who is lying beside her props his chin on his hand in a gesture that mirrors the woman’s anxiety and frustration.
Another work, which is titled I do, is a portrait of a woman with cascading locks of hair, and a garland of flowers around her neck and bosom, topped off with a halo over the head. Given the swearing an oath title, it can be read as the artist’s yearning for an ideal soul mate.
Mvura yehupenyu shows a gender ambiguous person standing in a pool that is possibly covered with aquatic vegetation. Water is portrayed as a giver of life in a bleak landscape.
Yuh love appears to depict a semi-naked couple in an awkward post-coital moment. One might even relate it to the biblical fallout in the Garden of Eden after the first couple ate the forbidden fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, and discovered that it was naked.
Kamera Nyanga and Country roads are bawdy titles to a couple of works that depict the exposed bodies of pubescent subjects. Some viewers may be reminded of portraits such as Therese Dreamin’ by French painter Balthus (Balthasar Klossowski).
Balthus and other older white male artists who produced similar work were, in their time, considered to be portraying “raw spirit, not yet moulded by societal expectations.”
Chokuwamba’s work finds its reference in street lingo, and, therefore, more of a poke in the ribs and a wolf whistle from guys on the block. Being the youngest artist on the FFG roster fits the bill for such youthful behaviour. The works convey the awkwardness of growing up.
Chokuwamba’s characters appear to emerge from the canvas like objects in the vision of a shaman caught up in a trance. He shows concern for subject matters beyond his station. His rare voice speaks to the anxiety, hopes and aspirations of a young adult in a deeply personal way.
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