UK, Zim roots enrich my art: Karen

UNITED KINGDOM-BASED Zimbabwean visual artist Karen Mandiwanzira (27) has vast knowledge of Zimbabwean and European culture and her art speaks to that. Being a female African visual artist in a male and white-dominated industry has not weighed her down, but kept her strong to use art to tell her story.

After giving up a career in the health sector to focus on art, Mandiwanzira says she has no regrets. As part of celebrating women in arts during the women’s month, NewsDay Life & Style (ND) senior reporter Winstone Antonio caught up with Mandiwanzira (KM), who is currently back home, to find out more about her journey in the arts industry.

ND: Briefly take us through your journey as a Zimbabwean and African artist in the United Kingdom.

KM: There are three different battles you face being a black African female visual artist in the diaspora and being black and African in a predominantly white country and educational institution.

Being a female in a male-dominated industry and an artist in a conservative environment where the art industry is still in the process of fighting the narrative of the arts not being perceived significant enough by academics accompanied by inadequate funding.

This opens up possibilities for misconceptions, micro aggression, discrimination and inequality within the art industry.

My experience as a visual artist has been a bitter sweet one. Initially, my career path was in the health and social care industry until I drastically changed to arts. As a result, this made me feel very unsettled due to a conservative upbringing following the pre-judgments of pursuing a career in art.

However, despite all the challenges I faced, I was prepared to take the risk because I believed in my talent.

ND: How did all this begin and what drives you?

KM: This began with my migration to the UK. What fuels my passion are the environments I have lived in and my upbringing in two different worlds. The contrast of the perspective I have on social matters inspires me to reflect that through the choice of my artistic output in this instance, painting and charcoal drawing.

ND: How has it been appreciated in Europe and how did COVID-19 affect your work?

KM: My input through studying and pursuing an art career has benefited Europe, more specifically my educational institution in regards to cultural exchange. The contribution of my perspective is an addition to the knowledge obtained by those who do not come from where I have come from.

I graduated and completed my Bachelors of Arts degree in the middle of a pandemic. There was so much uncertainty during my last year of the course in 2020. Fine arts is a practically demanding course which enables you to visually create in social spaces which later on in March 2020 was re-adjusted to meet social distancing measures. The experience affected me in various ways.

The transition from practicality to virtuality was a turning point for me. I adapted very well and utilised the spare time I was given to plan and complete future projects. However, it was disappointing being a graduate in times of hardship.

My first exhibition was postponed to the following year due to COVID-19 circumstances in 2020 including my graduation ceremony. This gave me enough time to reboot and restructure plans for the future.

ND: What has been the highlight of your career?

KM: I feel like my career is just beginning at a professional level. Returning home and connecting with my roots and the huge experience of being in a culturally rich and diverse society has given me great satisfaction and inspired my creativity. To cap it all, it has just been an honour to link with the hardworking people at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, who are doing a phenomenal job to keep our art alive. The progressive leadership of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe is so supportive and they have given me an opportunity to participate in their programmes which solidifies my long standing message about my heritage and culture as a diasporan.

On Thursday (today), I am serving as a panellist on their “Harare Conversations” virtual initiative focused on the topic Investigating the Black Woman’s Body Through The Female

Gaze. Other highlights include gaining knowledge of the arts from a perspective beyond the aesthetic view. Studying the course made me look at art in a much more professional manner which reaches academic rigour. To me this was very important so as to add substance to my paintings and understand the theoretical and contextual aspect of the subject.

ND: Can you choose any of your paintings to explain what you meant and wanted to achieve?

KM: I have a painting based on body politics which is a subcomponent of black renaissance.

Depending on how the canvases are positioned, you will notice the curvaceous brush strokes which accentuate the essence of (the late Khoikhoi woman) Saartjie Baartman. The choice of colours, which in this case is a monochrome palette and silver leaf, plays a part in the narrative of being a second-class citizen in society. The black and white acrylic paint was evoked by segregation of races which is labelled through colours.

The white-gapped lines within the painting are a representation of a glitching effect and an hourglass within our society — in regard to history repeating itself within the contemporary world.

I couldn’t help but notice how much female bodies, specifically black female bodies are hyper sexualised in society and media.

Baartman was visually presented through violation; she was paraded around Europe because of her physical attributes to fashion — no different to a modern perception of what a zoo would be like.

This has led to the conclusion that black people regardless of one’s status in the community were deemed black first and any everything else after in the sense that Western culture is most focused on the colour of skin rather than individual characteristics and their merit.

And as such, this stigma and mentality is implanted within the minority people for generations to come.