Shaping the local art scene
MULTIDISCIPLINARY artist Kombo Chapfika is keen on understanding all art mediums.
He has become popular for combining elements of African and Western pop iconography, patterns, installations and surreal elements to reveal unspoken subconscious narratives.
Having worked in animation, advertising, broadcasting, web development and fine art, Chapfika’s broad range of mediums has been pivotal in developing artistic practice, technical base and creative direction.
The artist is skilled in drawing, painting, design, animation, coding and installations.
Recently, he has been making waves with the TLDR (Too Long, Didn’t Read) exhibition, which features augmented reality (AR), with custom Instagram filters he developed to enhance the gallery experience.
However, the artist notes artificial intelligence (AI) and AR will have a serious impact on traditional art and other creative fields.
“While I have enjoyed making some AR projects, I do not want to fixate on the technology. Use the tools and do not let the tools use you.
“Traditional art will be affected less, but I am concerned it will be misused to devalue artists, and further the colonisation of culture by technology.
“If people are too passive and hooked on social media, everything will be AI shortly,” argued Chapfika.
He notes that technology is already changing the creative production industry by altering and replacing labour in the production workflows.
“I also worry that people will lose their appreciation for embodied skill, after being flooded with AI-generated images online. Art students are likely to lose motivation as they see technology looking to invade more of the creative spaces.”
The artist’s curatorial statement for the TLDR exhibition was generated with the use of ChatGPT, which is trained on the internet — “a very biased and rigged environment”.
The self-taught artist said his passion for art was influenced by his upbringing. He was interested in visual art and started to experiment with painting when he was still five years old.
He specialised in Economics at the Georgia State University in the United States.
Chapfika then refined his digital skills at Cartoon Network, where he worked for two years.
“As a self-taught artist, I believe art transcends any singular medium and that each discipline informs the other,” he said.
“It is important for art to advocate social issues as a result of cultural shifts in society. Artists have many roles in society. Among them is the desire to express difficult ideas, to inspire, encourage and foster understanding among people,” he said.
Asked what makes his artwork unique, he said: “None of us are an island. I am less interested in ‘being unique’ than in
doing the best I can to realise my ideas and inspirations.”
Digital art on canvas, handtufted yarn on fabric, as well as aerosol paintings on tobacco painting, are some of the art mediums the multidisciplinary artist understands.
“What works for me is mixing them. There will be weeks when
one takes precedence but that is always temporary. Each medium has its own strengths and weaknesses,” he said.
Cartoon Network; Netflix and Nespresso; Interactive; and the United Nations Development Programme are some of the major international brands he has collaborated with.
However, he has encountered challenges along the way.
“The Netflix project was difficult. Not so much the work itself, but the multiple rounds of revisions and being part of a team that mostly interacted via video calls and emails,” he said.
Chapfika will be part of the Zimbabwe pavilion at Venice 2024.