“Speak, Mnemosyne” is the title of an exhibition curated by Lifang Zhang. The show took place within the National Arts Merit Awards (NAMA) event at the Harare International Conference Centre (HICC) in Zimbabwe’s capital city in the final weekend of February.
Writer Barnabas Ticha Muvhuti caught up with the curator of the exhibition to unpack the show, and discuss the ups and downs encountered in the build up to the event and on the day of the show.
At different times in his life, he experiences inexplicable circumstances whose mysteries usually only unfold after a few years, allowing Nahar to understand more deeply and develop an understanding for complexities. He is very clear about his collection of material: “I carry that force of spirituality on me as backpack so that everything that comes on my path and yells something at me becomes my acrylic paint and my canvas.”
With the gaining of independence of several African countries, Africans in photographs began to have more and more of a say in how they were photographed. This agency, this power to dictate how they wished to be seen became entrenched in the practices of African photographers after the colonial era.
What does any of it have to do with painting?
Clay as a material is malleable, thus it is able to be shaped in the artist’s vision. So, pottery can become a personal or political manifestation. As well as the aesthetic heritage, pottery is a record of the world around it, the zeitgeist and the society it was borne from. This is why recording and archiving these works are not only important for the art world but vital for history.
When he left (the Edna Manly College in) Jamaica, he knew he wanted to support the creativity of young people in particular and give them the opportunity to be self-sufficient. He knew he had to come up with projects that do justice to the Maroon culture. In doing so, he had to involve the population of the region as much as possible.