Arebyte Gallery, NGZ launch exhibition

AREBYTE Gallery in London and the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo have launched POWERPLAY, a group exhibition featuring artists working within digital media space, moving images and technology.

The exhibition, which opened on August 15, will run till September 26 at Arebyte Gallery in London and was co-commissioned by Arebyte Gallery and the NGZ in Bulawayo, with support from the New Art-New Audiences grant from the British Council.

POWERPLAY features works by Mr Colour, Bolatito Aderemi Ibitola, Vincent Bezuidenhout, Scumboy, King Debs, Mbakisi Sibanda, Kumbirai Makumbe, and Isaac Kariuki.

Arebyte Gallery curator Rebecca Edwards said the first showing of the exhibition will be presented in London, before coming to Zimbabwe.

“POWERPLAY will be the first exhibition of digital and new media art at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo, Harare and Mutare. POWERPLAY foregrounds the digital arts scene in Africa and presents work by digital artists who are from or based in Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and the UK. Discussing the use of technology in creating a sense of identity and place within a digitised world, the artists in the exhibition look at the relationships of power experienced in varying ways,” she said.

Edwards said the works address isolation and alienation, societal bias around gender and race, transformation of being, the politics of borders and migration, dark markets of trade and communities who work outside of mainstream economy.

“Technology can seem intangible and removed from a sense of personability, however it can also reinforce a sense of place and identity - this is formalised in the exhibition through a reconnection to the physical world by challenging the traditional modes of display, and incorporating screen-based works with physical ephemera, alongside a virtual reality version of the exhibition, where the work is stretched beyond its physical or material limits," she said.